Page 1195 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 30 May 2007
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
from consolidated revenue—and very clearly in line with the party’s commitment in our platform that any money achieved from any school site is retained within the education portfolio. We have already allocated a significant amount of money—$350 million—and the process that Mr Hargreaves has outlined is that of course it goes into consolidated revenue first and then it comes out and is spent in education.
MR SESELJA: Mr Speaker, I ask a supplementary question. Due to Mr Hargreaves’s confirmation that it will be going into consolidated revenue, how will you demonstrate to the people of the ACT that all proceeds from the sale of assets will be retained in the education system?
MR BARR: Mr Seselja should bother to listen. I will give him this offer: he can come with me to look at every project that we are investing in during the next four years and give it an endorsement that the government is spending the money. If he has the time, he can come with me.
Mr Pratt: Has every dollar gone back?
MR BARR: As I visit more than 100 of our school facilities in the first 12 months of the portfolio—
Mr Pratt: Has every dollar gone back?
MR BARR: If Mr Seselja wants to be there to give his tip—
Mr Pratt: Has every dollar gone back?
MR SPEAKER: Order! Mr Pratt, I warn you.
MR BARR: Mr Seselja needs to see these projects on the ground. If he would like to see where the money is going, I am more than happy. I know he has very little interest in matters education—like those opposite that have nothing to say on any of the major issues. We are still to hear a thing from that side of politics about the federal government’s attempt to impose through the budget process HSC or VCE-style external examinations on the ACT. We are yet to see a single thing—a single statement—from those opposite. Again, they are silent on every important matter in education. Consistently, they have nothing to say.
This government will continue to invest record amounts in our school infrastructure. New gymnasiums—every government high school in the ACT will have a purpose-built gymnasium. There are now two left that do not: Stromlo and Belconnen.
Mr Smyth: When?
MR BARR: That investment, as part of the government’s—
Mr Smyth: When?
MR BARR: Next year. Look to Tuesday’s budget papers, Mr Smyth; I have already made this announcement. Gymnasiums—
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .