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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2002 Week 4 Hansard (11 April) . . Page.. 979 ..
Health-Standing Committee
Report No 1
Debate resumed from 9 April 2002, on motion by Ms Tucker:
Question resolved in the affirmative.
Education-Standing Committee
Report No 1
Debate resumed from 9 April 2002, on motion by Ms MacDonald.That the report be noted.
MS MacDONALD (11.02), in reply: Mr Speaker, I am happy to speak to this report, which was presented on Tuesday. I am particularly happy to note that the committee received 24 written submissions and 11 verbal submissions for this inquiry. The committee was extremely pleased at the number of organisations and stakeholders within the education system that made a submission, particularly given the short amount of time for the inquiry. The committee was also pleased to hear from a number of organisations that have not previously been involved with such processes; that is, they were not the usual suspects.
Some key themes arose from the submissions. These were grouped under five headings-early intervention and children at risk; students with disabilities; vocational education; IT resources; and teachers' conditions. The committee was pleased specifically to have submissions from the vocational training sector, an area which we believe previously has been overlooked and one into which the committee is discussing making further inquiry.
It was no surprise to the committee that a number of the submissions talked about a shortfall in education funds. Such is the nature of education that more money can always be spent on it, but there is not always the money there to spend. However, the committee did feel that there was a perception by people operating in the education sector that education funding had declined in preceding years.
I would like to thank the other members of the committee for their cooperative approach and to thank David Skinner, the committee's secretary, for interpreting the committee's ramblings.
Debate having been closed by reply, debate, by leave, continued.
MR PRATT (11.05): Mr Speaker, I would like to commence by commending my committee colleagues and Mr David Skinner for putting together this fairly comprehensive report. A substantial report has been prepared with much care, but in a timely fashion. The review of the budgetary aspects was undertaken fairly quickly. Nevertheless, it is apparent that a good cross-section of all the education interest groups
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