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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2001 Week 1 Hansard (13 February) . . Page.. 80 ..

MR BERRY: So you can't talk about one and not the other. In this exercise the federal Minister for Education has been aided by his ACT counterpart. While the federal Liberals raided public education budgets and gave massive funds to the private sector, Mr Stefaniak and his cabinet colleague Mr Moore have sat numb, quiet. They never said a word about these highly discriminatory funding arrangements which have been embarked upon by the federal government. They, ultimately, will impact upon schools in the ACT, whether you like it or not. They will impact on schools.

At 5.00 pm the debate was interrupted in accordance with standing order 34. The motion for the adjournment of the Assembly having been put and negatived, the debate was resumed.

MR BERRY: It is designed to undermine confidence in the government school system. Kemp has made it clear. He has sought to encourage students to move from government to non-government schools. It is an ideological blockage that the Liberals have. It is more of that private sector nonsense which keeps coming up from the mindset they have about this particular sector and how it should be providing all of the services. Well, not education, Mr Deputy Speaker.

Mr Stefaniak was questioned in relation to this matter. He did admit that he had some concerns about the issue. I think it was forthright of him to do so, but what I found absolutely unacceptable was the failure of the government to make a submission to the Senate's States Grants Bill inquiry in relation to this matter. We should have been out there defending the public system for all we were worth and building confidence in it instead of letting Kemp and Howard undermine confidence in the public system. Where were we? Well, I can tell you where we were. We were quiet. We were sitting quietly by, just letting it happen, letting them do it to us. If the government now stands up and claims they have an interest in the public government schooling system they deserve to be branded as hypocrites. Through Mr Stefaniak's silence he has sacrificed our public education system in favour of loyalty to his political colleagues on the hill.

Mr Moore's previously strident defence of public education has been more than muted. He has attempted to defend the indefensible. He has gone on the attack. He has vilified anyone who has asked him to stand by his previous commitment to defend our public education system. In other words, Mr Deputy Speaker, the metamorphosis is complete. Where you sit is where you stand. Mr Moore's indifference to the plight of public education has exposed his attachment to the Liberal ministerial umbilical cord as complete.

For years questions have been raised about cuts to our education system, and those who have stood up to ask these questions have been denigrated and isolated. But the answers are now out. Mr Deputy Speaker, the Productivity Commission has collated the figures provided by state and territory governments, including the ACT government, and it has published them. We now have independent evidence, using the government's own figures, signed off by a senior government representative, which is very clearly demonstrated by the headline in the Canberra Times of 31 January, "ACT Falls Behind In School Spending". Again attacking the messenger, Mr Stefaniak lobs out the next day and we see this: "Stefaniak Labels Commission Figures As A Dog's Dinner". Well, isn't it interesting-

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