Page 1271 - Week 05 - Thursday, 31 May 2007
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Mr Hargreaves: They are not in the army, mate.
MR PRATT: Mr Hargreaves, if you do not care that our children and our youth are well cared for and that your ministerial colleague properly exercises a duty of care to look after our kids, you may as well pack your bags and go, mate. You may as well pack your bags and go if that is your attitude. If this is all about politics and spin and covering your mates, you are letting down your community just like this minister is. The point here is that this minister has not truthfully informed this place—perhaps inadvertently and perhaps because he is not putting the pressure on his department to ensure that they keep him informed about these issues.
Let us look at the facts around this particular case that Mrs Dunne has raised. Something very serious has occurred. There is a very high probability that the department, and perhaps even the school, have breached protocols, and you have not been informed. I would hope that this is a case where you have not been informed rather than a case of you allowing the department to sweep things beneath the carpet, minister. I really hope that that is the case.
Mr Barr made a number of comments here today where he said he was absolutely concerned that this matter had been elevated—I think the term was “elevated to the Assembly”. Of course it has to be elevated to the Assembly. That is Mrs Dunne’s responsibility as the shadow education minister. She has cottoned on to an issue that may have some serious fallout; she has to raise the issue. This is a place of democracy, democratic principles and transparency where ministers have to be held accountable. You do not want to be held accountable, minister.
Mr Barr made the comment that this is just a blatant political exercise. For the reasons that I have just outlined, it is not; it is the duty of the opposition to question and scrutinise this minister about departmental procedures.
The next point I would raise is this: Mr Barr has shot a comment across this chamber about Pratt and Smyth allegedly informing the student body at Kambah high school about another serious college incident. I will put the lie to that claim. Tough luck for you, minister, but sitting in my office right now is a young witness to the presentation made by Pratt and Smyth to the student body at Kambah high school last year who will absolutely refute any mention of any particular college—about any particular incident.
Mr Barr: What were you doing there? It was not a college; it was a high school. You can ask Mrs Dunne about it.
MR PRATT: If you would like me to, Mr Speaker, I will bring that witness to you—and to you, Mr Barr. He will tell you to your faces that Pratt and Smyth have never spoken to any student body at that high school about other violent incidents in other colleges. You might like to reflect on that, minister, and in future keep your mouth shut before you make such wild allegations.
Mr Barr’s failure to follow protocol in this place to answer truthfully reflects a failure of protocol in his department to keep the minister informed about reportable incidents.
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