Page 2915 - Week 11 - Thursday, 22 October 1992
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PAPERS
MR BERRY (Deputy Chief Minister): For the information of members, I present the following papers:
Health - Department - Report and financial statements, including the Auditor-General's report and freedom of information statement, for 1991-92, including 1991-92 reports from:
ACT Radiation Council.
Director, Mental Health Services.
Nurses' Board of the Australian Capital Territory.
Urban Services - Department - Report and financial statements, including the freedom of information statement, for 1991-92, including 1991-92 reports from:
Architects Board of the ACT.
Canberra Public Cemeteries Trust.
Chief Inspector, Dangerous Goods.
Commissioner of the ACT Fire Brigade.
Plumbers, Drainers and Gasfitters Board.
CHIEF MINISTER AND MINISTER FOR EDUCATION AND TRAINING
Motion of Censure
MR KAINE (3.12): Madam Speaker, I seek leave to move a motion of censure of the Chief Minister, Ms Follett, and of the Minister for Education, Mr Wood.
Leave granted.
MR KAINE: I move:
That this Assembly censures the Chief Minister, Ms Follett, and the Minister for Education and Training, Mr Wood.
Madam Speaker, a Canberra Times article this morning raises very serious questions about the position of both the Chief Minister, Ms Follett, and the Minister for Education and Training, Mr Wood. The closure and reopening of the schools at Cook and Lyons was a matter of considerable public interest and concern at the time. In fact, it remains so. This was not any inconsequential issue and would, I believe, have had a real effect on the February election had the full facts of the reopening of those schools been disclosed. It is a matter of great concern that members of the Government have obscured the figures up until now, when they have been put on the public record. Of course, the Minister today tried to blame it on his bureaucrats. He said that this is the result of a bureaucratic process. I submit, Madam Speaker, that it is the result of a political process, and a political process of members of this Government.
Madam Speaker, Mr Wood throughout the second half of 1991 consistently and continually made statements that the cost of reopening Cook and Lyons schools was $600,000 - no qualification, none whatsoever. Equally importantly, he stated on a number of occasions that the cost of reopening the schools would not impact on the education budget. They are Mr Wood's words. No other schools, he said,
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