Page 1844 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 2 May 2012
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funding for non-government and Catholic schools. I would like to see a change in that policy clearly enunciated by the leader of the Greens in this debate here today.
The ACT Catholic school system is under considerable pressure. Mr Doszpot has touched on it most eloquently in his exposition of the complete shambles that we have seen over the development of a Catholic high school in Gungahlin and the on-again, off-again Throsby move to Nicholls. We do not really know what the implications of that will be for the cost of the building and the threat to enrolments, at least in the short term.
It is all very well for Dr Bourke to welcome the announcement of the new principal for John Paul college in Gungahlin, but there is very little succour for the Gungahlin parents in the words of Dr Bourke. I notice that by Dr Bourke’s gutting of this amendment, he has taken out all of those important elements, including an explanation to the families of Gungahlin and an apology to the families of Gungahlin about the unnecessary delays and the costs of the failure to progress the construction of John Paul college on its original site.
Some of the other elements of Mr Doszpot’s motion which Dr Bourke proposes to remove are also of considerable importance. The government does not want to explain the variation between ACT public school funding, which is higher than any other jurisdiction, and the funding of Catholic schools and independent schools, which is among the lowest in all states and territories.
It is worth noting—it is something that has been raised with me, and I have raised it in this place on a number of occasions—the problems that the Catholic Education Office for the Canberra and Goulburn diocese has had. Schools of similar sorts, if they are over the border in New South Wales, are much better funded than the ones in the ACT, simply because of the low ACT government funding.
The classic example is St Benedict’s in Narrabundah compared to the Catholic schools across the border in Queanbeyan. They have a similar demographic and a similar socioeconomic background, but the schools in Queanbeyan are much better funded because they are funded through the New South Wales Department of Education at a much higher rate than the 17 per cent and declining rate that we see in the ACT. Dr Bourke has talked about the funding going from X million dollars to Y million dollars and said that we have never seen a bigger increase, but in real terms, as a proportion of the amount spent on Catholic education in the ACT, the amount of funding received from the ACT government is in decline. It has been in decline ever since the Stanhope government was elected in 2001, and no ACT Labor education minister has been prepared to address that decline.
That is why we should be providing fairer funding for Catholic and independent schools in the ACT. This is a matter that the Canberra Liberals will support most strongly.
MR SESELJA (Molonglo—Leader of the Opposition) (4.04): Mr Speaker, I put on the record at the outset that the Canberra Liberals unequivocally support all sectors of education in the ACT. Today we express our support particularly for the Catholic
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