Page 1395 - Week 06 - Tuesday, 1 May 1990
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children, on single incomes and with mortgages, also to have a second car to get their children to preschool?
MR HUMPHRIES: The answer is no, I do not have any expectations or announce any anticipated result of the task force which is currently reviewing preschool education in the ACT. I will wait for that report to come forward. If it recommends the cluster model to which I referred in my answer earlier today, the Government as a whole will have to consider the implications of that and decide whether that is an appropriate model. Of course, the things that Mr Wood has raised will be pertinent in considerations and we will not ignore those considerations. But I would feel more confident that Mr Wood had a positive contribution to make if he came forward with suggestions as to how the ACT might address the very clear problem of finding more dollars for the education system when clearly there are fewer overall.
MR WOOD: I wish to ask a supplementary question, Mr Speaker. Will the Minister place on record his view? Does he agree with the need for preschools to be located so that parents can walk their children to a neighbourhood preschool? Does he have a view about that?
MR HUMPHRIES: Mr Speaker, I have a view, which is that, generally speaking, the quality of education provided by our system is not contingent on the distance that a child has to travel to reach school in the morning. Naturally, of course, an access question arises if students are so far away as to be unable to reach their schools at all, but that is hardly very likely to be the case. I am yet to be convinced that any such scenario presents itself in the ACT.
I propose to make no further comment on the report of this task force. It is a courtesy, I think, to the members of that task force, if nobody else, to wait until the report is on the table and cease public speculation on what that report might produce.
Asbestos Removal
MRS GRASSBY: My question is directed to the Minister for Finance and Urban Services. I refer him to the following statements that he has made on the recleaning of houses found to have residual asbestos. The first statement was:
Recleans would not simply be slotted into the removal program.
The second was:
Asbestos will be removed within four years and we'll look at recleans as they come along in the program.
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