Page 3180 - Week 11 - Wednesday, 12 September 1990
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School Closures
MR MOORE (4.48): Mr Speaker, I would like to raise a quite different issue. The issue that I would like to speak about today is a couple of statements that have come from Dr Willmot and also, I think, Mr Humphries. They have commented on whether children should participate in demonstrations. The school closures issue is a matter that has been of great interest to many children and older students and they have, of course, participated in a series of demonstrations. We have seen more children in the Assembly since this issue was first flagged than we have at almost any other time in the Assembly's history. I think it is of great benefit to students and to children to see that they can participate in a democracy and express their opinions, provided this is not done with violence or with threats of a personal nature or anything to that effect. It is a great disappointment to me that anyone in the community could suggest that it is an inappropriate way to use our children.
One of the areas of weakness in our education system that could be looked at is just how do we involve our children in their own democratic systems. I think it is clear to many of us who have worked in schools and have now moved into government that it is an area of weakness in our education system. In America much effort is put into involving students in government and how government works - their rights and, of course, their responsibilities. In Australia we often put more emphasis on responsibilities. That is appropriate, and I think that most people in this Assembly would agree with that. Perhaps this is an area that the Government might decide that it should look into, to see just how we could involve students in a more active participation in the democracy. They could see how it works in their own schools and how it works broadly.
For anybody, especially people so closely involved in education, to suggest that children ought not be participating in a democratic methodology - for example, demonstrations, writing to members and so forth - I think is a poor reflection on themselves and on how the school systems work. I would like to flag this and make this public, because I am delighted to see so many people of all ages participating in an appropriate way in our democracy and expressing their opinions, as indeed they should, and bringing pressure on members of the Government, and in fact on all members of the Assembly over these sorts of issues.
United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child
MR COLLAERY (4.51), in reply: I rise to close the debate. I was interested to hear Mr Moore's remarks on the involvement of children in the schools issue. I draw the attention of the house to the recently signed - at least by Australia - UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Mr Speaker, in that convention article 12 says:
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