Page 1627 - Week 06 - Tuesday, 30 April 1991
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involved. So, you will have a hard time doing that; but if you read the Enfield report very carefully - you do not even have to read it carefully, just read it - you will discover that Mr Enfield found that officers in the health department not only had not informed senior management of what was going on, they had not informed the Minister either.
If you are suggesting that a Minister can be held culpable when an investigation finds that not only the Minister but also his senior officers were not informed on what was going on, then you are stretching the limits of credibility to the ultimate. If you, Mr Connolly, ever become a Minister - which I doubt - I would be interested to see whether you would take the same sanctimonious view that you are taking now.
Schools Restructuring Task Force
MRS NOLAN: My question is to Mr Humphries, in his capacity as Minister for Education. Mr Humphries, what progress has been made by the Schools Restructuring Task Force?
MR HUMPHRIES: It is a very timely question. The task force, of course, has been set up in response to the community debate last year on the closure of a number of primary schools in Canberra. The task force was appointed a few weeks ago by the Government, and it had its first meeting earlier this month, chaired by Professor Judith Brine of the University of Canberra. The deputy chair is Professor Phillip Hughes of the University of Tasmania, and I might note that that name was put forward for the deputy chairmanship based on a recommendation made by the ACT Council of Parents and Citizens Associations which I was happy to accept. Professor Hughes was chairman of the ACT Schools Authority in the 1970s and he has maintained a continuing interest in ACT education.
Professor Fred Gruen of the ANU, an economist, has also agreed, I am pleased to say, to serve on the task force, as have representatives of relevant interest groups and government agencies. I am happy to supply the full list of members of the task force, although I am sure that those opposite have probably got around to reading that particular press release, and probably caught up with that important issue.
I wish the task force well with its very significant task. It faces a daunting challenge. It has until 1 September to report to the Government on ways in which savings can be made in the area of education. I realise that in the context of a pre-election year it will be particularly difficult to make decisions and recommendations to the Government which can be viewed in a cool, calm light not affected by that election campaign, and I sincerely hope that those opposite do not exploit that so as to make the
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