Page 1198 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 30 May 2007
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MR BARR: I do, Mrs Burke. Trust me; I do. The point is that there is such a wide array of programs and practices. These are issues that are taken seriously by school boards, by school principals and by whole school communities. Again, what we are seeing here is some sort of underhanded attempt to say that there is a massive crisis in public schools.
Mrs Burke: No, we are not saying that.
MR BARR: That is the message I am hearing, perhaps from other channels, but we know what is going on.
Mrs Burke: You hear what you want to hear.
MR SPEAKER: Order, members! This is not to be a conversation.
MR BARR: We know what is going on. We have a wide variety of programs in place. We are always looking at new measures. But what we have to face up to as a society as well is how much children are mimicking the behaviour of adults. That is a responsibility that is broader than just schools. It is a whole of society issue. If we seek to throw all of the responsibility onto the schools, we are not doing society a favour. We all have a responsibility here and, as adults, we should be involved in it.
MRS BURKE: I look forward to a specific briefing on specific—
MR SPEAKER: Come to the supplementary question, Mrs Burke.
MRS BURKE: programs for students with disability. What impact, minister, has the closure of schools had on the bullying of students with disability?
MR BARR: There have been a variety of responses to my office in relation to some of the changed arrangements; for example, the move of autism units and other support units from Rivett primary school into a new environment at Duffy. Those reports have been universally positive: the facilities and programs at Duffy are at a level so far above what was available at Rivett. I have even had a number of parents say they feel like traitors to their Rivett community for saying that the programs are better at Duffy. But they acknowledge they are and that the change has been positive.
We have invested a significant amount of money in providing the best environments in our schools to ensure that the issues and the concerns that Mrs Burke has raised do not occur. Of course, again it is not possible for any minister or any government to stop any bullying from occurring, ever. That is unrealistic and effectively setting the benchmark so high as to ensure that anyone will fail to reach that goal. But what I can say with surety is that the staff in the receiving schools, my department and all of the agencies that provide support within ACT public schools have done an outstanding job in managing the transition of students into new environments.
We have sought to create better environments—that is acknowledged—and that is certainly the case in the change from Rivett to Duffy. There are a number of other examples throughout the public education system. It is something we take very
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