Page 2107 - Week 06 - Thursday, 7 May 2009
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We are also very disappointed to see the ACT government has not continued the funding for the Googan Gulwan literacy and numeracy program. This program achieves great results and has been commended for its work in keeping Indigenous students engaged in their education. Lobbying for this funding has been ongoing for years and has come from various organisations within the community who recognise the value of this program for our Indigenous young people. The ACT government could have investigated options for providing this funding within the department of education, especially given their commitment to literacy and numeracy in this budget. Alternatively, they could assist Googan Gulwan to investigate options for commonwealth funding for this valuable program.
As the Greens spokesperson on women, I am very disappointed to see that this year’s budget has not been accompanied by a women’s budget statement. Each year this statement gives a report on how the budget directly impacts on girls and women in the ACT. I grant you that this statement has always been a little light on information but specific initiatives are outlined and, without ongoing monitoring of the programs and their implementation, we do not actually know how the budget really impacts on women. It was a useful overview of the impact of the budget on woman and girls in the ACT.
It seems that this year women’s issues have been entirely subsumed into the mainstream documents. Lack of gender-disaggregated data is something that needs to be addressed. Our agreement with the government states that the publication of gender impact statements and gender-disaggregated data associated with the government’s legislation, policy, budget and annual reports will be phased in by 2010. We will be insisting that the government delivers on this.
The vitally important service of education in this budget has received $28.7 million to lower class sizes. We welcome the move to reduce class sizes but there is a need to ensure that in this process class sizes actually reduce as the budget refers to an average figure. It could be easily achieved without any improvement in class numbers in some larger schools.
We also welcome the $6.4 million over four years for the enhancement of performance in literacy and numeracy skills, which addresses the need to provide many more literacy specialists in schools to help in this area. The construction of the Harrison high school, the performing arts centre at Canberra college and the $4 million dollars for the installation of solar power generation systems and water tanks in ACT schools are great additions to the system.
Higher education has also received a much-needed investment of $27 million in CIT, which provides an opportunity to build skills for green-collar industries for the future. While the budget contains substantial infrastructure spending, it is even more important that we invest in the people that will build our future economy. The Greens want to see a new army of solar technicians, energy auditors, house retro fitters to put Canberra at the centre of Australia’s new economy, a green economy. And of course we want to be providing places for skilled professionals to teach this workforce.
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