Page 4252 - Week 10 - Wednesday, 21 September 2011
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Mr Assistant Speaker, I understand that the Canberra Liberals are trying to address what they perceive to be a real problem. I understand that at first blush without really thinking about the issue, it can seem like a not unreasonable idea. However, I think the reality simply does not reflect the situation that the Canberra Liberals are trying to paint. We do not have an out-of-control problem with truancy that desperately needs to be addressed in this sort of way.
There are, and always will be, some young people who wag school. I do not think that shops not selling them hot chips will make the slightest bit of difference to that. If we want to address truancy, we need to be looking at the real underlying cause and the issues facing that particular young person and maybe their family.
Minister Corbell did go into a few of those issues. Having worked in the areas I have over the years, you need to be able to get the programs and support to those children and young people, and in many cases their families, to re-engage them back into school. That is what you need to do, not some simple three word slogan way of addressing it. You really need to be getting in and putting in place, and properly resourcing, programs that go to the heart of the issue. Programs are going to change the outcome for that young person, the pathway that that young person will take in life.
I also found it a little bit hard to get my head around this a bit, because if you remember within the last year or so, the Canberra Liberals wanted to extend suspensions in schools so a principal could be able to suspend a student for up to 20 days. On the one hand, they wanted to suspend and keep students out of school and on the other hand, they are putting in laws to try and keep them in school. It is a little confusing.
Interestingly, many of those students who are probably suspended may well have been suspended because of their wagging. So we go around in these strange circles and this sort of spiralling situation. We need to stop that happening. The way you stop that happening is to get in there with well-resourced, well-considered, well-thought-out programs that are put together by the professionals who know what they are doing.
Mr Assistant Speaker, the Law Reform Advisory Council is about to undertake a comprehensive review of the Discrimination Act. The Greens support that inquiry and agree that it is appropriate to look at the broader act and its effectiveness at addressing the discrimination in our community.
Before I finish, I turn for a moment to the ridiculous “right to wag” statement that has been out on Twitter and out publicly today that Mr Seselja has been using in this debate. He referred to the “right to wag”. I find that interesting, knowing very well the United Nation Convention on the Rights of the Child. Knowing that inside out, I have yet to find the right to wag. This is the latest in the three word slogan nonsense that I guess we should be expecting.
Mr Hanson: It is four words.
MS HUNTER: The right to wag—I think it is three, Mr—
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