Page 727 - Week 03 - Thursday, 22 March 1990
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Mrs Grassby: No. He is finished, Mr Jensen. Sit down.
MR SPEAKER: Would you all settle down.
Question resolved in the affirmative.
SCHOOLS AUTHORITY - 1988-89 REPORT
Statement and Paper
Debate resumed from 21 February 1990 on motion by Mr Humphries:
That the Assembly takes note of the paper.
MR WOOD (12.22): Mr Speaker, I want to use this debate to comment on the life of the Schools Authority when it was an autonomous body, before its transition in the late 80s to a Department of Education. I want to make this comment ahead of announced changes back to an autonomous body. I note remarks in the Alliance education policy that a schools council charged with the administration of ACT schools will be introduced. Again, the Chief Minister in a speech in December said that he would restore participation and autonomy to the education sector.
I think it is worthwhile making some comment on the success or otherwise of the Schools Authority. As an autonomous body it ceased in the late 80s under, I might say, a Labor Minister. It was, at that time, part of the planning for self-government and there was a logic there that the Schools Authority was fine when the Minister was a Federal Minister and remote from the ACT - certainly in policy matters. With the arrival of self-government or the impending arrival, it was logical that the self-governing Act could pass that administration back to an education department. That is a point that has been debated fairly hotly and on which I have had differing views at various times.
The Schools Authority was an acclaimed system, not just with those who managed it but around Australia. It was a system that was well recognised as introducing important reforms into the education area. There is no doubt that it was a bold new venture and led the way in Australia in many areas. It was much applauded - very much so in the ACT. Indeed, it was surprising to me when it was replaced that there was no outcry, there was no community protest, there was certainly no return to the fervour of the debate of the 1960s and early 1970s that resulted in the establishment of the authority. I was surprised about that. This speech is not a eulogy but an assessment by one who has worked in a variety of capacities in the system, who has studied the system and who valued it.
The Schools Authority was formed in late 1973 on an interim basis to administer government schools from the beginning
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