Page 4701 - Week 11 - Wednesday, 20 October 2010
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their fully sighted peers. They are not in Learning Support Units or Centres where the teacher to student ratio is much higher than in a mainstream class, if anything our children require more support than they are currently getting not less.
I have the same wish for both my children, that is that they do the best they can at school, make the most of every opportunity that comes their way, make their own opportunities and most of all that when their school days are over they will have the ability to make choices and decisions for their future. My biggest fear is that without the access to basic educational opportunities that most of us take for granted the choices for my daughter could be extremely limited.
Every child has the right to an education and what I hope we can all agree on is that we all want the best possible educational outcome for all children within the A.C.T School System.
Ms Hunter, through you, Madam Deputy Speaker, this is the reason that we are not going to support your amendment. We do want to listen to the people. We do want something to happen. And your amendment waters our motion down to a level that is unacceptable.
MS BRESNAN (Brindabella) (11.35): I would like to speak to Ms Hunter’s amendment to Mr Doszpot’s motion. I want to point out some of the issues which Ms Hunter raised in her speech which quite clearly the Canberra Liberals have not listened to because they were too busy interjecting and shouting over the top of her so that they probably missed most of what she mentioned in her speech.
Ms Hunter quite clearly in her speech did not say she supported the cuts and, in fact, was critical of the way the process had been conducted, which I believe is one of the issues Mr Doszpot has also raised as being one of the key issues which are wrong with this whole process. Ms Hunter has then put into the amendment:
(3) calls on the Government to thoroughly consult with the broader school community and community organisations on the impact of any proposed changes to student services.
That quite clearly states that there needs to be thorough consultation with the community before any of these cuts or cuts of any sort proceed.
I also wish to speak to some of the, I think, fairly outrageous comments that have been made by various speakers from the Liberals that somehow Ms Hunter has attacked Mr Doszpot, which I find—
Mrs Dunne: She did.
MS BRESNAN: She has not attacked Mr Doszpot. I do believe that, possibly before having a forum, it would have been useful to have information from the department which could have informed the parents and could have allayed some of the fears that these families and parents had about what was happening.
We have briefings all the time before we go and meet with various groups and individuals. I have been to a couple of briefings with the Liberals on a number of
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