Page 3284 - Week 10 - Thursday, 25 September 2014
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In 2006 public preschool hours were increased from 10 to 12 hours per week. This placed the ACT within the top jurisdictions nationally for providing the most hours of preschool education per week. With Australian government funding under the universal access national partnership, all ACT public preschools offer 15 hours per week of free preschool education. Without continued Australian government support, 15 hours of free preschool education cannot be maintained. The ACT government is working with the Australian government to secure a strong future for our children and our nation.
ACT students continue to be the best performing in Australia. Our 2014 NAPLAN test results show that ACT is in the top or equal top in 16 of 20 areas tested. These outstanding results—
Discussion concluded.
Major Events Bill 2014
Detail stage
Remainder of bill as a whole.
Debate resumed.
MR RATTENBURY (Molonglo) (4.57): When we broke for lunch, I was making a few remarks relating to government amendments proposed for the bill today, and I will continue with those.
The next one I want to comment on is government amendment No 2. I agree with this amendment because it improves the process for declaring which items are prohibited items at major events. It essentially ensures that only items which may be used to interfere with the event or be a risk to public safety will be prohibited, and the prohibitions are reasonable.
Government amendment No 4 ensures that variations to a major event declaration are disallowable rather than notifiable. This means that the Assembly can consider any variations, which is appropriate, especially given the declarations can impact on various rights. This was an issue I raised with the government, and it was also raised by the scrutiny of bills committee. I note that there are similar amendments for important events mirroring the ones I have just spoken about for major events, and I welcome those amendments as well.
Government amendment No 10 provides that certain prohibited items are only prohibited if they could be used to interfere with an event or present a risk to safety. The amendments apply to prohibited items at sections 12(1)(a)(xvi) and (xvii) of the bill—a glass item and a metal can. This was a specific issue that was raised by the scrutiny of bills committee. It gave examples of how regular, everyday items like phones have glass in them, and the list of prohibited items needed to be clarified.
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