Page 3008 - Week 14 - Tuesday, 5 December 1989
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way of maximising preschool attendance. The point is that the preschool community was told by the chief education officer that preschools with more than 17 enrolments were considered viable and that no viable preschool would close.
As there was no school in Canberra with enrolments of less than 18, the community thought they were safe on hearing this promise. But the very next day the Minister told them that this was not the case and that the 17 enrolment figure was only one criterion for stability. It is a shabby and shameful way for the community to be misled and it came as no surprise to find this heavy-handed Minister, this Minister for Education, back down and give schools a one year reprieve.
Mr Speaker, this Government has talked constantly, indeed it has bragged, about its attitude towards consultation, and something has already been said today about that. But the fact is that under this Government the consultation process has been in many cases little more than propaganda. The Education Minister has introduced a Bill to wipe the last traces of the Schools Authority Advisory Committee from the statute books. In its place he set up a ministerial consultative committee with no legislative standing and no independence.
In doing so, the Minister has turned his back on meaningful participation in education decision making; he has turned his back on real consultation. I say this because I believe real consultation is still possible within the framework that the Government has set itself. He has, instead, sought to centralise power in his own hands and in the hands of his department at the expense of the community. This is a time for a return to participation and meaningful consultation in education, and the alliance government will deliver where this Government has failed.
Mr Speaker, I have to confess that the problems encountered in education pale into insignificance when compared with the Government's appalling performance in the area of health. The Chief Minister has said that there is no justification for today's no-confidence motion. I believe, Mr Speaker, that her Government's failure to deal with the problems confronting our hospital system alone justifies the sacking of this Government. In particular we have seen a total paralysis in the Government's ability to make decisions regarding the severe cost blow-outs in our hospital system. We have witnessed this Government's threat to abolish the interim hospital board, a board that has done its job responsibly in identifying areas of waste and inefficiency in our health system. Let me remind this Government that these areas of waste and inefficiency are costing the people of the ACT millions of dollars every year. For example, the contracting out of catering services alone would save the people of Canberra up to $2.5m every year, and elimination of the two and a half hours' overlap in nursing shifts would save an additional $1m a year.
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