Page 2585 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 23 August 2006
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of them were quite justifiable but it is a bit rich for the government to say this is a stunt when it had a number of wide-ranging inquiries.
Mrs Dunne: Seventy-odd.
MR STEFANIAK: I am told by Mrs Dunne 70-odd. This in an inquiry into one of the most important areas of government—the delivery of education. We have not had a proper inquiry into education since before the college system started in 1976. I think Mrs Dunne mentioned 1972. I point out to the Chief Minister again that when Roberta McRae was education spokeswoman she hung her hat on a full-ranging inquiry into the ACT education system. So it is very rich of the government to say this is a stunt. It is not. It would be wide ranging. It would look at what is needed in our system. It would take evidence from a wide range of people to let them have their say and it would come out with recommendations that would point the way ahead—not in a piecemeal fashion, but to point the way ahead for several decades to come—to build on the success of our system. All governments since self-government have done something to help build on the success of our system.
I also find it incredibly rich for the Chief Minister to talk about what was said back in 1990. We have all said a lot of things in this place. The Liberal Party has never been against the need sometimes to close schools. It is a sad thing and it has to be done properly. There might have even been a couple of times in the past when we could have done it better.
Mr Barr: I was about to say Charnwood high.
MR STEFANIAK: Mr Barr says Charnwood. I am happy to take him on about that one because there was a reasonably short consultation period there. But it had a choice. I can remember discussing whether it would like to twin with Melba. At the end it chose not to do that. When the Chief Minister was berating us about that, Mr Barr mentioned Stirling College. Stirling College, along with Phillip College, voluntarily twinned as the Canberra College, and it is still there. I wonder for how long under this government, but it is still there.
Members can learn a fair bit about consultation from the previous Liberal government. I mention the Spence and Melba school community consultation that went on for at least 12 months, under the auspices of the guidelines Mrs Dunne tried to re-introduce with the consent of the AEU and the P&C back in May this year. It was a successful amalgamation, but I think poor old Melba—Mt Rogers as it is called now—is for the chop under the government’s proposal. Indeed, right up until June, the standard line from the Labor government, as it was from the Labor opposition, was very much against school closures. Some little comments were made by Mr Barr’s predecessor that some schools might at some stage have to close. But Labor has a consistent history of always objecting to school closures—even to ones that were inevitable and quite sensible. Suddenly we have this conversion on the road to Damascus—not even on the road, probably in the suburbs of Damascus—and we get the 2020 document, that was crafted—
Mrs Dunne: I would not say crafted.
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