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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1999 Week 7 Hansard (2 July) . . Page.. 2236 ..

MR STEFANIAK (continuing):

certainly in terms of government schooling, the Government has maintained its promise at $6.5m, and an increase on that is an increase in funding in anyone's language, not a decrease. I am not going to go over what is said in the Government's response to the estimates report, but there are a few comments there.

Ms Tucker mentioned a few things which I will now come to. She talked about outcomes in relation to school-based management. That is certainly something that we will be looking at carefully and assessing over the next few years. At this early stage, school-based management has been a very big success. In fact, schools have been perhaps a little bit cautious in spending money because the savings in school bank accounts have gone from about $9m to about $15m. I am pleased to see that some schools are starting to realise that and are spending the money they have made on things that they need for the benefit of their students. Others have very significant bank accounts and are still not doing so, but I expect that to be something that will evolve. Overall, enhanced school-based management has gone very well indeed and I look forward to further benefits flowing from it as the system continues and we continue to evaluate it.

Ms Tucker also talked about the gaps between the haves and the have-nots. In Canberra we are very lucky in terms of having generally a homogeneous population. We have pockets of wealth and pockets of disadvantage in virtually all suburbs. We have a situation where we have, for example, public housing in most suburbs. There are only a few suburbs that do not. From the literacy testing we have been doing there is no one school that beats every other school in any one strand. That indicates that we have a homogeneous type of population. We have done a number of things to plug possible gaps, such as affirming the high school years, the school equity fund, the program we have at Dickson and the Weston campus of Canberra College in terms of students in need, and the teachers and youth workers who operate now out of the Belconnen and Tuggeranong youth centres for kids who may be dropping out and go there for additional assistance.

We are putting in a big effort in terms of ensuring that students who do need help, who are in difficulty and at risk of becoming have-nots, are not disadvantaged. The fact that we have such a significant commitment to government education in this town and to maintaining and, hopefully, enhancing and improving the quality education system we have ensures that education is very much available to all in this town. So, I was a bit surprised by some of Ms Tucker's comments there. I think that one of the beauties of our education system is that there is no discernible gap as such in terms of what is provided for all students, the haves and the have-nots. Education is equally available to all, regardless of the income of parents.

I turn now to some comments made by other members. That is a good idea, Dave, about tarting up the Belconnen centre. I think that we are doing a fair bit there, mate, but I am sure the Government will be most interested in any other ideas you have got. As a Belconnen member as well, I would certainly be very interested.

Mr Quinlan and Mr Kaine made a number of comments in relation to Bruce Stadium. I note in relation to Bruce Stadium that when the Labor Government got it in the First Assembly they actually paid a lot of money for a stadium they did not own; in fact, on which they had a lease until 2009. They spent something like $7m there. We have

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