Page 4141 - Week 11 - Thursday, 17 Sept 2009
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Debate (on motion by Mr Doszpot) adjourned to the next sitting.
Campaign finance reform
Pursuant to standing order 128, Mr Seselja fixed the next day of sitting for the moving of the motion.
Education, Training and Youth Affairs—Standing Committee
Report 2
MS BRESNAN (Brindabella) (10:31): I present the following report:
Education, Training and Youth Affairs—Standing Committee—Report 2—School closures and reform of the ACT education system 2006, dated 11 September 2009, including dissenting comments (Ms Bresnan), additional comments (Ms Burch) and additional comments (Mr Hanson), together with a copy of the extracts of the relevant minutes of proceedings.
I move:
That the report be noted.
Today I have tabled the report of the Standing Committee on Education, Training and Youth Affairs entitled School closures and reform of the ACT education system 2006. First off I would like to thank the committee secretary, Sandra Lilburn, for her strength and forbearance throughout the entire process of this inquiry. Dr Lilburn went above and beyond the call of duty and I cannot thank her enough for all her hard work.
I would like to thank my fellow committee members, Mr Jeremy Hanson and Ms Joy Burch. I would also like to thank the many people who took the time to make the effort to give evidence to the committee, including people from the school community.
This inquiry, which commenced in February this year, received 76 submissions from 31 witnesses. Most people saw the inquiry as an opportunity to tell the committee of their experiences of the Towards 2020: renewing our schools reform process, which resulted in a significant restructure of the act.
Members will also be aware this restructure resulted in the closure of a number of primary and preschools. While the community heard that there had been benefits resulting from the restructure, many of the views expressed during the inquiry were, as was expected, critical of the government’s decision to close schools.
While the inquiry has been criticised by some as looking to the past, the committee was more interested in the administrative and decision-making lessons that could be learned from this experience: what could be done better; what needs to be done now; what were the key themes?
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