Page 1853 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 2 May 2012
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MR ASSISTANT SPEAKER: Mrs Dunne, order! I have asked you before, and I will not ask you again. That is it.
MS GALLAGHER: For people who cannot afford private education or on their own beliefs do not want private education, it is essential that we have strong public education. It underpins all education. If you have a strong public education system it will benefit the non-government school system as well.
I really think it is time to move past the finger-pointing of who supports whom in education and to just generally accept that every single member in this place, all 17 of us, support education and educational choice. On the Labor Party’s side—and I imagine it is similar on the Liberal Party’s side—we also believe that public education is there as the underpinning of all education. It always has been and it will continue to be so. We have a strong public education system in the ACT. We have a strong private education system in the ACT. We have non-government school advisory education committees; we have a government school education committee. We talk with the non-government sector all the time. We work collaboratively. We sort through issues when they arise.
Maybe this is the firing pistol: the Liberals have finally woken up. There is an election on and there are going to be the knockers and there are going to be the builders—the ones that actually want to get on and do something and then the ones that want to tear it all down, criticise and complain and not come up with any of the solutions. But I think we all in this place, in Catholic education week of all weeks, should stand together, united. Mr Doszpot, I believe your motion was drafted precisely in a way to enable you to deliver the “us versus them” speech that all of you have come in here and given. That is the reality. That is why it was drafted that way. That is why there are amendments.
It is a real shame that in Catholic education week this is the way you behave. We imagine it will continue all the way to the election. But don’t you dare go out there and allege that the Labor Party does not support non-government education. You can say it in here as much as you like, but you cannot go out there and perpetuate that myth. It is not true. I support education for all children in the territory, regardless of where their parents may choose to have those children educated. I have one of my children educated in a non-government school at the moment, because that is the right thing for her. It is not the right thing necessarily for the others. So I make those choices based on the needs of my children. I will continue to do that, as can other parents.
Isn’t it a bit of a sad day when, in Catholic education week, the Assembly cannot even agree on the fact that we all support Catholic schools?
Ms Hunter’s amendment to Dr Bourke’s amendment agreed to.
Question put:
That Dr Bourke’s amendment, as amended, be agreed to.
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