Page 3236 - Week 11 - Thursday, 13 September 1990
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to move there. The Government rejects the suggestion that the club industry was not consulted, and it totally rejects the suggestion that there is an inequitable tax scale being introduced.
School Closures - Inquiry
MR STEVENSON: My question is to Mr Humphries. In this house yesterday in regard to whatever will happen concerning school closures, Mr Humphries said that it will also analyse - and I am referring to point 2 of the two terms of reference - the social and economic implications of school closures on a range of issues, including students and parents involved, shops and businesses in the suburb or suburbs, and comparative social and economic implications associated with the use of other expenditure reduction strategies to achieve savings. In other words, what are the alternatives? Looking at the definition of the word "audit" - an examination of an account or of accounts - and in light of the fact that Mr Humphries said that he is going to hold an audit, not an inquiry, could he inform the house how that relates to what he said yesterday? How can one audit social implications?
MR HUMPHRIES: Mr Speaker, I think that Mr Stevenson is becoming slightly confused about the description that has been used so far. When I have used the term "audit", it has been principally referring to the most important element of this inquiry and that is the consideration of the cost savings. The cost savings and the capital costs and other costs necessitated by these decisions are, of course - - -
Mr Wood: But your terms of reference said more than that.
MR HUMPHRIES: Of course they did. I am not suggesting that they did not. But I am saying that there were several elements and the audit aspect is particularly relevant to the cost savings aspect of the decision, and that is the emphasis that I have put on the issue in respect of the term "audit". Obviously, you cannot audit the social and economic implications of a decision to close schools, and in this respect it will be a more general kind of assessment; it will be a professional and expert assessment of the issues that have given rise to the decision. I do not think that means that it cannot be done professionally or accurately. There is obviously an element of subjectivity in issues of this kind, but the Government has made a decision based on the evidence before it and I would expect that a person assessing these issues would have to make a similar kind of judgment. I do not believe that means that it is impossible to make decisions of that kind; it just means that we have to look at the evidence and work out whether the decisions fit the available evidence about what the ACT needs to do.
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