Page 3113 - Week 08 - Thursday, 25 June 2009
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Mr Barr: Forty-one.
MR COE: Forty-three per cent, I hear from the shadow—you have 40-odd per cent, we will say, that are choosing—
Mrs Dunne: It is much higher than 40 when you go into the high schools.
MR COE: It is like a reverse auction, isn’t it. You have 40-odd per cent who are choosing to opt out of the public system, choosing to pay above and beyond their taxes that have paid for public education, because these parents have sacrificed and consciously said that the non-government sector is not for their child.
Some parents, of course, do choose government schools because it is right for their children. But the fact is if the public system was as good as Mr Barr constantly tells us, why is the trend away from public schools? You have a handful of students that switched, but the long-term trend is against public education.
I think Minister Barr has to take some responsibility for this, and he has got to look at his party’s policy towards non-government schools. Quite frankly, the public are endorsing non-government schools clearly with their feet, yet you have a minister that is refusing to give a breakdown of the money that goes to private schools, refuses to actually outline the support he is giving non-government schools because I presume he is too afraid. He is too afraid to annoy the public school constituency.
Recommendation 93, on page 147 of the committee’s report states:
The Committee recommends that the ACT Government budget gives a more detailed breakdown of funding to non-government education.
This is not a Liberal Party recommendation. This is an Assembly recommendation that the government should do this. Whether this actually happens remains to be seen, of course. Personally, I am quite sceptical whether this will actually happen because, as I said earlier, I think Mr Barr would be too afraid of annoying his core constituency that may well be anti non-government schools.
But another example in the context of the Labor Party’s lack of delivery when it comes to school education or tertiary education would be, of course, the 49 per cent increase in bus fares for students. Tertiary students from next Wednesday will pay a 49 per cent increase in the cost of riding a bus. This from a government that is trying to encourage people into public transport, coming from a government that meant to be the champion for education, coming from a government that is meant to be the champion for young people.
A 49 per cent increase just brushed aside by Mr Barr by his saying, “Well, we have not had an increase for three or four years,” is not good enough. There has been no inflation in Australia in any state or territory of 49 per cent. To actually say that there is a service increase of 49 per cent on ACTION buses is laughable. Really, there has to be a better justification for why tertiary students are paying 49 per cent more in the cost of their bus tickets.
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