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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 6 Hansard (18 June) . . Page.. 2078 ..

MS TUCKER

independent schools think is the rationale for their claim to be able to expel students at will. Basically, they do not feel that they should have the same responsibility to take into their schools, for example, students who live in their area because they are asking for more and more money from governments, federal and state. That could be possible if they took on the same responsibilities as the public system.

One of the parents said, "Why should I pay good money to have my child sitting next to a student who's disruptive?"I think that that is the problem. The student who is disruptive is disruptive for a reason. Children are not normally disruptive just for fun. If you look at an analysis of what is going on in young people's lives, which we often talk about in this place with compassion, and I think it is probably genuine compassion on the whole, and if you look at the life circumstances of so many of our young people, you will realise why they are probably not going to be perfect kids in a classroom.

The independent schools are in a position to expel those children, which is happening now, and they will go into the public system. The public system has a responsibility to do everything it can to make those young people participating, constructive citizens in our community. That takes resources and that takes a fine, good system. We need to be funding the system appropriately so that it can do that work.

The other question here, of course, is that when you have public schooling becoming residual schooling you are basically going back to the 1950s or earlier, as Mr Cornwell alluded to, because you are really reinventing the class system and, basically, the class system is supported by much of what is going on in the independent schools, particularly the elite independent schools, anyway. If Mr Cornwell sincerely believes that that is in the interests of society as well, I would have to disagree with him.

Arguments have been put that people who are paying fees to independent schools also volunteer to do a lot of work. In the public system, parents of students now have to pay subject levies and fees and they do volunteer to help by taking part in working bees. The parents of children in the public system also put a lot of energy into their schools and I do not think it is correct to suggest that that is not the case. In fact, it is of concern that users pays is such a large aspect of the public system. (Extension of time granted.)

I conclude by saying that I noticed that Mrs Dunne said that she hopes that we will see some justice from this government on this question. I think that justice is what it is about and justice in a society requires that there be a public education system of a high standard that is attractive to people from all walks of life so that people from all walks of life can be educated together to a high standard and then go into the community and participate knowing what it is like to sit next to someone who is an Aboriginal, for example.

How many Aboriginals are there in the independent schools? Not very many at all; the independent school sector has told me that itself. Also, how many people with disabilities are there? We know that it is quite inequitable how funding is spent on children with disabilities in independent schools. There is a lot more spent on each child in an independent school because of the way they choose to use the resources. If you are interested in justice, Mrs Dunne, you really do have to take account of these figures and the facts that have been raised in this debate. Instead of just calling people naive, as

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