Page 1650 - Week 07 - Tuesday, 29 May 1990
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I will put Mr Humphries on the spot. He has waffled on about the issue of how much the school closures will cost. What is your estimate, Mr Humphries, of the net savings of closing 15 to 25 schools? If you have an estimate, would you kindly tell us what the money will be spent on?
MR HUMPHRIES: Mr Speaker, Mr Berry's questions border on the stupid on occasions, and this is certainly one of them. In fact, it more than borders on it; it goes right into the middle of stupidity. I have made it quite clear that it is impossible to estimate accurately, in any sensible fashion, the sorts of savings you are going to make from closing schools until you know which schools you are going to close. That follows pretty logically from any analysis of the costs and the benefits of closing schools. You cannot just say that an average school saves this much, an average high school saves that much, and therefore you can get an average figure for a saving on 15 to 25 schools. That is a stupid way of proceeding and it is typical of the way in which the Opposition seems to have been handling all the economic questions we have been debating on this and other occasions in this house. There is no basis for making those kinds of assumptions. I certainly will not be getting into the process of estimating for Mr Berry's benefit which schools might be closed so I can give him some notional figure.
I can supply Mr Berry with figures on the amount of savings that were actually produced in the round of closures that occurred at the end of 1988. As I have indicated publicly, they were in the order of $1.2m. Those are not hypothetical figures; they are real savings that occurred as a result of the closure of five schools - four primary schools and one high school - at the end of 1988. I therefore believe, Mr Speaker, that it is perfectly possible to say that there are eventually going to be those sorts of savings from a further round of school closures.
School Counsellors
MS FOLLETT: I would like to ask Mr Humphries a follow-up question on that. I wonder whether Mr Humphries can tell the Assembly what is the cost of school counsellors who are working with children who are located in new schools as a result of the most recent round of school closures. What is the estimated cost of counsellors for the proposed closure of up to 25 schools?
MR HUMPHRIES: As Ms Follett is well aware, I cannot possibly take that question other than on notice, and I will do that. I do not see any reason why the cost of a school counsellor in an ordinary school, a school which has not recently been consolidated, should be significantly different from that of one in a school which is in the situation of having been recently consolidated.
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