Page 3027 - Week 10 - Wednesday, 17 October 2007
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Mr Barr: Bill Stefaniak: Charnwood high closed on a month’s notice. That is my local example—from your leader.
MR SPEAKER: Order!
MR SESELJA: Do not try and shift blame.
MR SPEAKER: Order! Mr Barr, cease interjecting, please.
MR SESELJA: Mr Speaker, he is sensitive on this issue, because he had to perpetrate the fraud with the closure of the 23 schools. We had the previous education minister—
MR SPEAKER: You should withdraw that.
MR SESELJA: Sorry; I withdraw that, Mr Speaker. The misleading of the people of the ACT in the 2004 election was completed by this minister, who came in and was told, “You’ve got to go and close the schools, Mr Barr. You need to go and close the schools.” Mr Barr can try and shift blame elsewhere, but the reality is that it was this government that misled the people of the ACT. They misled them on one of the fundamental areas of alleged concern that the Labor Party talks about. If there is anything the Labor Party claims to stand for, it is the area of public education. And on that core issue—where, over time, many in our electorate did trust the Labor Party, did believe the Labor Party—people were betrayed.
When the issue of whether or not there would be any school closures was publicly canvassed, Mr Pratt, to his credit, put it out there and said, “Yes, there may need to be some mergers. Yes, it is possible that you could see some school closures.” What did the government say to that? “We won’t be closing any schools. We won’t be closing any schools—not in this term.” The next day an article went on to suggest that it would not happen in Ms Gallagher’s time in politics. Some five, 10 or 15 years down the track, who knows? But they had the gall to go to the electorate on a falsehood—an absolute falsehood—saying that they would not close schools.
Anything they do on education now and any promises they make on education need to be seen in that light. They need to be seen in the light that they misled the people of the ACT. They did not have the courage to tell them the truth prior to the election, and they stand condemned for that. No amount of consultation, no amount of weasel words and no amount of “We need to do this” protestations from Mr Barr can change the fact that they fundamentally misled the people of the ACT on a massive area of public importance. They misled them.
We know that they do not support non-government education. We have now seen their contempt for government education. Only one side of politics in the ACT is committed to both government and non-government education, and that is the ACT Liberal Party.
Debate interrupted in accordance with standing order 74 and the resumption of the debate made an order of the day for a later hour.
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