Page 3125 - Week 07 - Thursday, 30 June 2011

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When there are problems, they should be fixed. They should be dealt with. They should be acknowledged. There should be support given to principals to deal with the problems. But we are aware of this funding disparity. I think it was unfortunate that the Labor Party and the Greens voted against our motion recently. It really was just calling on the federal government to do the right thing. It was calling on them to do the right thing by our non-government schools as part of this review.

What is there to oppose in that? Why did the Labor Party and the Greens not support that? Would they not want to see more funding coming from the commonwealth, both for our government schools and our non-government schools? That is what we should be hearing from the education minister. The education minister should actually be pushing for more commonwealth funding for government schools and non-government schools. (Second speaking period taken.) We might have to bring a motion back, Mr Doszpot, maybe a really simple motion, that calls on the commonwealth to give more funding to both our government schools and our non-government schools. We should be able to get tripartisan support for that, I would think. If we cannot, I would be shocked. If we do not get tripartisan support for that, of course it would demonstrate a real hostility. Why would you say no to more commonwealth funding for government schools and non-government schools in the territory?

Despite Mr Smyth urging me to go on, I will leave it there. But in closing, let me say that we are big supporters of both the government sector and the non-government sector. We do want to continue to see them thrive. We do want to see more funding going in. I think that the non-government sector is particularly suffering at the moment here in the ACT because of that funding disparity. I think part of that is quite deliberate. I think that there is an agenda at work there which is quite hostile. Parts of the Labor Party and the Greens are hostile to the non-government sector. We do not share that, and we are going to continue to fight for more adequate funding for both sectors in the ACT.

MR BARR (Molonglo—Deputy Chief Minister, Minister for Economic Development, Minister for Education and Training and Minister for Tourism, Sport and Recreation) (11.35): I thank members for their contributions on the education part of the budget this evening. It is a significant part of ACT government expenditure, as members have pointed out in the context of this debate.

There are a number of highlights in this year’s education budget, most particularly the additional support for students with a disability in public schools and the funding boost for teachers’ salaries to raise the status of the teaching profession. The increased front-line support for our schools is also important. That initiative goes to upgrade the level of school business managers within our government primary schools. As I am sure all members would agree, the more that we can do to assist teachers and school leaders in their core task of improving teaching and learning, the better it is for our education system.

The budget also contains additional support for sport within the ACT education system, seeking to implement the Campbell review of school sport within the ACT to


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