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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 5 Hansard (8 May) . . Page.. 1782 ..

MR PRATT (continuing):

beyond, staged developments because of this move by the government-this absolutely narrow-minded development by the government-to pull the scheme. They cannot. They rely on the government subsidising their interest rates to be able to carry out those developments.

We will not successfully develop or add value to the ACT education system by ripping funding out of the non-government sector to take across to the government sector.

Ms Gallagher: We are putting it back into the non-government sector-it is across the board.

MR PRATT: No. "Across the board"means you are thinning it out.

Ms Gallagher: Across the board-not into Boys Grammar!

MR SPEAKER: Order please, members! Mr Pratt, direct your comments through the chair. Members, please maintain order.

MR PRATT: Mr Speaker, you are a man of decorum. The fact is that, no matter which way the minister paints this, this is still the thinning-out of a particular bag of gold which has a valuable role to play in the ACT education system. Whether some of it is turned back into non-government schools-

Ms Gallagher: All of it, Steve-if you read the response.

MR PRATT: We will see. We have just got the report now. We will see the detail of it.

Ms MacDonald: That is right. "We will see". You are getting up and speaking on it before you have read it.

MR SPEAKER: Order! Mr Pratt, direct your comments through the chair.

MR PRATT: Who? Me, Mr Speaker?

MR SPEAKER: Yes.

Ms MacDonald: Is there another Mr Pratt in the place?

MR SPEAKER: Order, Ms MacDonald!

MR PRATT: I thought I had reformed-but apparently not.

MR SPEAKER: Refresh yourself first. Take a little H₂O, and get stuck into it.

MR PRATT: Mr Speaker, I will conclude. Excuse me, please. I am choking in anger, with what is being seen here as misguided and blind-alley initiations on the part of the government which will not improve, by one iota, any part of the ACT education system.

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