Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .

Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 12 Hansard (11 November) . . Page.. 3972 ..

MS McRAE (continuing):

To follow through on Mrs Carnell's rather peevish interjection, the point of the phone call was to ring and invite them to attend the board. Let me make it absolutely clear. If her Government wants to follow the daft policy of paying people for their telephone calls, it may. That is not what I am suggesting in this amendment.

MS TUCKER (6.16): The Greens will be supporting this amendment moved by Ms McRae. In light of the representation of the ACT and Region Chamber of Commerce on the board, I think it is quite reasonable to have the Trades and Labour Council represented. I would also support the suggestion that the position be made available by removing the person appointed from outside of the ACT. I agree with Ms McRae that it would be quite possible and probably more useful to invite people from various vicinities of Australia to discuss current educational issues rather than have just one person anyway.

MR STEFANIAK (Minister for Education and Training) (6.16): I will not reiterate what I said earlier in relation to the TLC, but I stress that I think it would be unfortunate for the external member to go. I reiterate what I said about our school population. A lot of our students, by the very nature of the ACT, go and do their tertiary studies interstate. That is a fact of life. That is why having a person from interstate on the board is very important. Yes, I suppose you can have people come in from time to time, but I do not think that is the same as having someone there. I think the ACT is more unique than other States and Territories in terms of the movement of its students, and that is why I think that person is very important. I note that Ms McRae probably has the numbers on that. I accept that her amendment is going to get up, but I think that is one of the things we will be looking at very closely over the next two years.

Amendment agreed to.

Clause, as amended, agreed to.

Clauses 9 to 14, by leave, taken together, and agreed to.

Clause 15

MR MOORE (6.18): Mr Speaker, I move:

Page 8, line 36, paragraph (c), omit "14", substitute "13".

This is a technical error which, I must say, I picked up only in my final re-read with my staff this morning, and I decided to move an amendment. It is something that I believe the Scrutiny of Bills Committee should have picked up because when you read the legislation it makes no sense referring back to section 14. Quite clearly, it refers to section 13. It is very important that these things be picked up. It is quite clear to all members, I imagine, that in the end this may have been remedied by a Clerk's correction. We would have the prerogative to do that. I thought, though, that it was important to draw attention to it because these are the sorts of things that we do not want to see slip through in the legislation. We really have to do it correctly. It is like the Henry VIII clause from last week's sitting. We really need to ensure that the technicalities of our legislation are exactly right.

Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .