Page 4269 - Week 12 - Wednesday, 23 October 2019
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These benefits will be felt by children and young people, parents, teachers and the directorate alike. We have all now placed our collective focus on bullying and violence where it occurs, thought about the issues and had a range of inputs that will help us move forward.
The Education Directorate has outlined its recognition of the problems that have been identified and has produced a solid plan to improve on areas of need. I particularly note the report from the advisory committee that talked about the fact that the PBL program is a good one and that we need to stick with it in the ACT. They suggested some areas of greater focus and the like, but I take on board their comments of giving the program time to work and to have effect. That is worth reflecting on. We will be watching closely the progress of the implementation. The directorate has taken these matters seriously. I look forward to seeing the continued implementation of the recommendations being agreed to and to hearing about that progress as we move forward.
MS LEE (Kurrajong) (5.35): I thank Minister Berry and Mr Rattenbury for contributing to this debate, which took a significantly different turn when the minister tabled the advisory committee’s report earlier today, the very report my motion called on the minister to table. As much as I would like to be a member of cabinet, I am not, so it is gallant of Mr Rattenbury to jump to the defence of Minister Berry in her assertion that it was her intention to table the report tomorrow. It was on the agenda on Friday, as I understand it. I had written to the minister twice between August and now, and my motion did not make it onto the notice paper until Monday, so I agree that it is about communication.
It is not surprising that the minister has gone to great lengths to bring forward a very carefully scripted speech that focuses on everything the government is doing right. After all, she has had this report for two months and has had full control of setting the terms of reference of the exact matters to be investigated.
One thing that at least in this debate that Minister Berry has acknowledged as needing some improvement is the complaints management system. Our schools are not a customer service hotline. Whilst I reserve the right to discuss the content of the report once I have had a chance to read it, it is disappointing that after having had the report for over two months the minister has identified, at least according to her speech today, that the only room for improvement is to streamline and make better the complaints management system. This ignores the anguish of parents who have come to us because their children are suffering at school and they are not getting the answers they deserve.
I reiterate that our schools are not customer service hotlines where making sure that we make better our complaints management system will be the fix-all to the issues raised by so many parents, so many teachers and so many members of our Canberra community. I also reiterate that I am heartened by the minister’s approach today and hope that the communication channels—this is an issue that Mr Rattenbury also raised—will be open in moving forward, because the safety of our children, especially when they are at school, has to be the top priority for any government and, indeed, all members of this chamber.
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