Page 3110 - Week 08 - Thursday, 25 June 2009
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I am sure that the non-government sector and many voters will not forget the minister’s remarks on 22 May in the estimates hearings when he referred to non-government schools as “blazer schools”. The budget papers do not explain the breakdown of funding to non-government schools at all. It is almost impossible to understand the exact breakdowns of this funding, where it comes from and in what proportions.
I have sought for my own benefit a briefing on the exact breakdown from Treasury on this funding but their advice is that the department of education is better placed to provide this information. Again, being pushed from pillar to post is how it seems to be and we have been waiting on this information and for this briefing for some time. It was only late this afternoon that we received notification that there will be a briefing on this.
Further confusion on this subject occurred when the minister himself advised in response to an alarming media statement relaying that special purpose payments were revised down by $20 million and that $2.5 million of this is funding for non-government schools, that this really was nothing to be alarmed about, that estimates are consistently overstated and that variances of between $9.5 million and $13.3 million less than actual funding had been received in the past for non-government schools.
This illustrates the difficulty in ascertaining simple information, information that should not be this hard to understand. Another issue of contention which is worth noting here today is the Labor Party advertising on government-owned facilities such as schools. The committee noted with concern that the minister’s staff had inquired about the use of a school to film an ad on behalf of the ALP when this approach should have come from the ALP itself. The practice of using taxpayer-funded facilities to film political ads is completely unacceptable.
I wholeheartedly support the committee’s recommendations 1 and 2 on this. Security and safety at ACT schools is a very serious issue that is not being tackled by this government. Again, I strongly support recommendation 95 of the committee’s report that the government conduct an audit and formulate a safety and security plan for all schools by 2010.
I was pleased to hear the minister say in question time today that he would be looking to include the non-government sector in the safe schools task force initiative. I would urge him now to make an ongoing commitment to include the non-government as often as possible without having to be asked or invited by them.
The minister was quick to say to me today that I have been coming on very strong about bullying issues and certainly bullying issues at the Kingsford Smith school. My response to this is that, yes, I am treating this issue with the gravity it deserves. The countless representations to my office about the legacy of bullying and the inaction on bullying is evidence of this. The minister can rest assured that I will not be giving up on these issues.
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