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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2002 Week 5 Hansard (8 May) . . Page.. 1331 ..

MR PRATT (continuing):

Members of the Assembly should be aware that the then Labor opposition had no reason to fear the serious drop in retention rates they claimed. First, they relied on anecdotal evidence and did not check all the facts available. Second, they seized on, perhaps a little too anxiously, the ABS 2001 ACT scope report as a means of reporting doom and gloom. That report was simply an aberration in a long and continuous trending up of positive reports-a trend which has continued and continues now. Third, by seizing on the report, they were comparing apples with oranges.

When we examine the standing committee on education report No 9 of July 2001, it is apparent where the misunderstanding started. Labor's doom and gloom statements, including "adolescents and young adults at risk of achieving satisfactory education and training outcomes", and the reference to "apparent" falling retention rates were based on rather flimsy anecdotal evidence. For example, on page 20 of the report, section 3.42 states:

School retention rates that are available are based on apparent retention rates rather than on actual rates. To produce data based on actual rates would involve tracking each student, which would be a costly exercise ...

And of course it would be paid for by the ACT taxpayer. The report goes on:

Nevertheless, in the absence of more accurate data the apparent rates indicate a problem, which must be addressed.

The following paragraph, 3.43, is even more telling. It reads:

There is no consolidated data on the numbers of students who truant or are persistent non-attenders. This matter must be addressed.

Labor's statements cast doubt on our fine education system and our educational outcomes. They worried parents of ACT students and added stress and doubt to the already ample workloads of ACT teachers by calling their professionalism into question.

Despite the evidence of a report produced by the education committee of this august Assembly, Labor spokespersons sought to create an urban myth, casting doubt on and disparaging the ACT school system, arguably the finest in our nation then and now.

I am highly critical of the then opposition for seizing on this inaccurate feedback and painting a negative situation which simply did not exist. A new ABS report shows that retention rates in the ACT have jumped by seven times the national average-great, reassuring news for ACT students, their parents and teachers! This means that the intelligent measures put in place by the former Liberal government, under then education minister, Bill Stefaniak, were working.

The ABS report of 2002 showed that more ACT students are staying at school, in both the public and private sectors, and that the ACT is some seven times the national average, with 112 per cent staying on from year 10 to year 12, when you include new enrolments.

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