Page 2402 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 2 August 2017

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May I remind members of this Assembly of the actions of Ms Burch, earlier in her career, who thought it was fitting to hand out membership forms for ACT Labor as well as ACT Labor Clubs to students as young as 14 years. That is evidence that those opposite and the movements that they are affiliated with have long seen ACT public school students as recruitment candidates whilst they are in schools. And that is dismal.

Whilst there is an agreement that workplace safety and training in schools is important, the Canberra Liberals proudly believe that our schools should not be a political recruitment ground of any political persuasion—left, right or otherwise. They should be apolitical; they should teach students how to think, not what to think. It seems that those opposite do not believe in having safeguards around whether or not it is appropriate for organisations to come into schools to recruit or hand out membership forms or encourage participation in an organisation—union or otherwise; I am being even-handed here; this is about any organisation entering public schools. That is highly alarming.

Parents across the ACT should be concerned about the kinds of programs that are being delivered to these children in school without, first of all, I would imagine, parental consent or, more importantly, knowledge of the substance or the content of material being delivered. There are some highly questionable programs that appear in a number of ACT schools and I think that parents should take the opportunity to inform themselves and become more active and be aware of what their children are being exposed to. It seems those opposite seek to exploit young people in a captive setting such as a school. That is simply appalling. The opposition will not be supporting Ms Berry’s amendment.

Question put:

That the amendment be agreed to.

The Assembly voted—

Amendment agreed to.

Original question, as amended, resolved in the affirmative.

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