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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2001 Week 6 Hansard (14 June) . . Page.. 1799 ..

MR BERRY: I move:

Mr Stefaniak: No. Don't be silly. I want to talk on the bloody thing.

Mr Moore: The Speaker can overrule the gag.

MR TEMPORARY DEPUTY SPEAKER: I know I can overrule it. I am well aware of that. Mr Berry has moved that the question be put.

Mr Stefaniak: I take a point of order, Mr Temporary Deputy Speaker, if you can overrule the gag. There are quite a few people who want to talk on this.

MR TEMPORARY DEPUTY SPEAKER: The question has been put and the chair acknowledges it. Bearing in mind that standing order 59, in particular, has been breached this evening by numerous speakers, I accept the motion from Mr Berry that the question be now put.

Question resolved in the negative.

MR TEMPORARY DEPUTY SPEAKER: The question now is that the motion be agreed to.

MR BERRY: Well, I will speak to it in that case. Mr Temporary Deputy Speaker, I am happy to speak to this motion. This motion goes to the issue of the amount of research that has been done in relation to educational matters as they compare to transport. We know from the Estimates Committee that the government has done no work on assessing the educational effect of transport systems. That was put to us. That was evidence that was transmitted. I do not intend to anticipate any debate about the Estimates Committee report. I merely want to say that that evidence was adduced during the course of proceedings before the committee. The government not having done any work in relation to this matter, it seems reasonable to me to ask them to do something, so that we have an idea and so that we have some confidence that they know what they are doing.

I heard somebody say a little while ago, and it was permitted by you, Mr Temporary Deputy Speaker, that the government had made a promise to provide certain transport systems in the ACT at the last election. Well, it did not. The government did it at the 1995 election and forgot it. It dropped right off the radar screen, absolutely forgotten, until just recently. It was not promised at the last election. Unlike the Belconnen pool-the Belconnen pool has been promised at two elections and will be promised at a third election-this one was only promised at one and was then forgotten.

Let us stop deluding ourselves. This thing came out of the blue. There was no election promise, no consultation and no work. The point I am trying to make is that there ought to be a bit of work about what the issue means to education, and the government does not want to do it. We are happy to support the motion that sees that this sort of work will be done. It would be preferable for me, at least, to see some support for this approach because at least then the work would be done. There has been no promise.

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