Page 238 - Week 01 - Thursday, 14 February 2019
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As to the role of the Standing Committee on Administration and Procedure, I am not sure it has any. Government schools are required to operate apolitically and, in general, community or electoral engagement by a politician is an inappropriate activity in a government school. Government schools are host to a diversity of families, families who hold a range of political, religious and philosophical opinions and who come from a range of backgrounds and circumstances. Government schools are free and open to everyone and, therefore, the effective operation of government schools requires equity, universality, and non-discrimination.
Beyond this, government schools are staffed by public servants employed under and bound by the Public Sector Management Act. Public school teachers are part of our apolitical public service that assists the executive and serves the community on behalf of the executive. They are responsible to the executive through their principal, who is in turn responsible to executives in the education directorate and ultimately to me as education minister.
So we get to the matter of the school visit protocol. Quite simply, the education minister is the person who needs to make sure that the participation of MLAs in government schools does not detract from their effective operation. Proper administration of government schools is the minister’s responsibility. There are a number of reasons that might mean it is inappropriate for an MLA to just show up at a school. In the ACT in multi-member electorates that could mean 25 members showing up to a school.
Opposition members interjecting—
MS BERRY: Madam Speaker, a point of order.
MADAM SPEAKER: The interjections; members, please let the minister continue.
MS BERRY: Thank you, Madam Speaker. It could be that there has been a critical incident that is in the process of being managed at a school. Maybe, sadly, a death in a school community has occurred or even something as innocuous as a period assessment might be underway. These reasons equally apply across both government and non-government schools. In non-government schools the system or school manager makes decisions about when and in what context a visit by a dignitary is appropriate.
The motion as proposed reflects on the different situations and rules that apply in other states and territories. Unsurprisingly, this is because the ACT context is different. Those states and territories, except for Tasmania, do not have the multi-member electorates I was referring to in such a small geographic area as that which exists in the ACT. I ask members to think practically about this.
We also would not be having this debate if we were talking about access to other government facilities. Consider for a moment if MLAs could invite themselves whenever they liked to an emergency services facility, police station, hospital, mental health facility, prison or any other government office block.
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