Page 1035 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 30 March 2011
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Mr Doszpot: Who sacked him, Andrew?
MR BARR: I have responded to that.
MR ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Mr Hargreaves): Stop the clocks. Mr Doszpot, please do not continue. I do not want to have to do to you what I have had to do reluctantly with Mr Smyth. Please do not force me. Mr Barr.
MR BARR: I sometimes wonder what is the point of question time. I responded to these specific questions yesterday. You specifically asked me, Mr Doszpot, whether the matters related to the woodwork teacher’s involvement in the inquiry, and I specifically said no. You asked me what had occurred and I indicated in my response to your question yesterday who was involved in making that decision around approaching Caloola, who is the employer, not the ACT government. The individual in question has, I understand, alternative employment within Caloola; so no job has been lost. He is working in a different environment. I responded to those questions yesterday.
But it would appear that, in all of the tension of question time, no-one listened at all. Perhaps we can all have cause to reflect on the theatre of question time and whether in fact anyone ever listens to answers to questions. But that is a matter for another day.
In all of this, I think it is important that we focus on improving education and training opportunities within Bimberi and, with that in mind, the focus of the Department of Education and Training has been on increasing opportunities and increasing staffing and resources within that centre to ensure that those opportunities are available. That has involved a recruitment process for an Indigenous liaison officer. It has involved increasing the number of staff and the breadth and diversity of training programs.
Let us not forget in this context that this is a challenging environment, with changing student numbers, a variety of students who have a wide range of capabilities. Some come with no functional literacy. So we have individual learning plans and a real focus on literacy and numeracy. But there is also sometimes limited time that the staff within the education centre have to work with those students. This is not like any other school environment. This is not like any other training environment. And in that context, there are enormous challenges around translating good intentions into good outcomes. And that is our focus in education and training, recognising the complexity of the challenge.
I think, importantly, out of all of this, regardless of the political agenda that people are pushing through this—and let us be frank, that is what a lot of this is about this morning; it is all about politics; everyone knows that; let us not try to pretend otherwise—there are a group of people in education and training particularly focused on ensuring that the quality of those education and training opportunities within that centre is of the highest standard and that we do ensure that there are appropriate programs in place. That is my focus and I believe firmly that that is the focus of the Department of Education and Training.
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