Page 542 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 22 March 2023
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University came from. I can certainly say that within our public schools we have that high reporting culture, which we encourage.
MRS KIKKERT: Minister, why do you stand by the Chief Minister in dismissing these factual concerns by saying that they are societal problems?
MS BERRY: That is ridiculous. That is not what I said.
Mrs Kikkert: You said he was right, in your first answer.
MR ACTING SPEAKER: Mrs Kikkert, you have asked your question.
Mrs Kikkert: I was paying attention.
MS BERRY: If Mrs Kikkert had listened to the interview on ABC Radio with an ACT school principal who described the issues within society as being reflected in and playing out within our schools, then she would understand that it is not something that the Chief Minister made up or that I made up.
MS BERRY: It is a reflection of what is happening in our society and the high expectation of what our schools are required to address, above and beyond them being, as a priority, a school facility and providing education for our young people. These are the issues that our school principals are raising with us as well. It is a national conversation that we need to address nationally. I am very proud of the high reporting culture within our school communities, because we want to understand what is going on. We do not want these issues to be hidden. We want to be able to address them, together with our schools.
Education—funding
MR HANSON: My question is to the minister for education. Minister, yesterday the Chief Minister blamed not only society but the federal government for the problems in ACT schools. However, the Report on Government Services—RoGS—shows that it is the ACT government that has cut real expenditure for full-time students in public schools by 3.3 per cent during the period 2010-11 to 2019-20. During the same period, federal government funding to ACT public schools increased by 42 per cent. Minister, do you accept that some of the real problems in ACT schools stem from the fact that this government cut real expenditure for every full-time student in public schools by 3.3 per cent over the last decade?
MS BERRY: Again, Mr Hanson is deliberately trying to misuse data to mislead and confuse our community with regard to schools funding. He knows that our ACT public schools are the highest funded public schools in the country, and we pay well above the schooling resource standard.
MR HANSON: Are you denying, Minister, that this government, as is reported in RoGS, cut real funding by 3.3 per cent over the last decade?
MS BERRY: Our schools pay above, with the exception of the Northern Territory, the schooling resource standard.
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