Page 2581 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 23 August 2006
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had looked, so the people of the ACT were misled. Two years later the government is proposing to close 39 schools. We have gone from zero to 39 in a very short time.
What has changed since August 2004? What did the Labor Party not know about prior to the last election? I put it to members that nothing has changed other than the fact that we now have a majority Labor government, and we now have a four-year term. We have an election behind us and another election is still over two years away. I think that is all that has changed since the Labor Party made that promise. We need to put this issue into context. We need to remember that this is why we are here.
The big argument put forward by the education minister and by the government is, “We are the first to take this on. We are courageous. We are setting out a vision.” But this is being rushed through. We know why it is being rushed through; there is no mystery about that. Prior to the last election the Labor Party said, “No schools will be closed.” The Labor Party has broken that promise. It made a lie of that previous statement, so it has to do this as quickly as it can. If it were to put in place a proper process, such as the inquiry proposed by Mr Stefaniak, heaven forbid, some of these schools might close prior to the election. In fact, a lot of schools might close prior to the election.
The Labor Party is relying on the fact that if it gets all the pain out of the way now, the people of the ACT, who were dudded at the last election in relation to this issue, will forget. They will either forgive the government for closing schools or forget in the two years leading up to the next election. That is why the government is rushing this through. That is why it is opposed to a proper process where we could look at all these significant issues. Members on both sides of the Assembly acknowledge that there are problems in the education system.
Ms Porter labelled education as a sinking ship. I do not agree with that. There are significant problems in our education system. However, if a ship is sinking people normally jump off it. By closing 39 schools the government is banking in part on a drift to the non-government sector. More people will jump off what has been described by Ms Porter as a so-called sinking ship. In part the government is banking on that. We must debate these issues in a considered way and not in the way proposed by this government.
This change is so significant that six months clearly is not enough time. We heard the minister say, “That is the legislative process. It is the minimum legislative process.” Why would the government deliberately bring about a situation where in December this year, just prior to Christmas, potentially 22 schools will close? Why would it deliberately do that? It wants to get all the pain out of the way now, as quickly as possible, so that hopefully people have recovered by the next election and the government can get on with it. That is what the government was banking on when it took this issue to the people, when it lied about this before the last election. We have heard a lot about consultation.
MR SPEAKER: Withdraw that statement, Mr Seselja.
MR SESELJA: I am sorry, Mr Speaker, I withdraw. When the government went to the people of the ACT it told them one thing prior to the last election that it must have known, or should have known, was not true. Now the government has gone back on what
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