Page 1842 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 2 May 2012
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some sectors where some early calculations have been done about how much may be lost in those sectors.
Dr Bourke mentioned that the Prime Minister had guaranteed that no school would lose any money. We need to make sure that that is the case. And we need to make sure that into the future we are providing funding in a way that recognises that some schools may have a higher proportion of young people and children from a lower socioeconomic background, and some may have higher numbers of children with a disability, and that needs to be acknowledged in the way the school is funded.
We also need to be looking at this issue of achievement gap. It is real. We have had an inquiry in this Assembly. It was not really a huge revelation. It showed us that children who come from lower socioeconomic backgrounds—children who come from Indigenous families, from refugee families—need our support. They need greater support to ensure that they are going to be able to reach a level of education that is going to open the doors of opportunity that most of our young people have access to.
We have a fantastic system here in the ACT. We should be very proud of it, whether it is in the Catholic, independent or government sector. It is a world-class system. But we know that we need to keep an eye on that funding, look at where the assistance needs to go, and make sure that our schools continue to be world class.
Thank you, Mr Doszpot, for bringing on the motion today. I look forward to attending more events this week during Catholic education week. Again, I thank the staff and students who were at St Michael’s primary school this morning. There was some great singing, and thank you to all the wonderful staff who got up at 6 o’clock in the morning to go in and cook breakfast for all of us.
MRS DUNNE (Ginninderra) (3:54): I had intended to move an amendment of my own, but I note that Ms Hunter’s amendment occupies pretty much the same sort of place. So at this stage I am not proposing to move my amendment. But if for some reason the alliance falls over and the amendments fall over as well, I will seek the indulgence of the Assembly to move that amendment later in the song.
Catholic Schools Week is important for the community and the ACT. I was away over the weekend—I was in Lismore—and I noticed in the parish bulletins the extolling of the importance of Catholic Schools Week. I pay tribute to the Catholic schools of Lismore run by the Presentation Sisters and the Marist Brothers, who provided education to me, my brother and thousands of people through the schools there. And I want to pay tribute to the Catholic schools here in the ACT, who have provided excellent education, over many years, to my family and to many other families across the ACT.
Catholic schools have a particularly important place in my family. I make no secret of the importance that I place on Catholic education for those people who choose it. In this day and age, it is not just Catholics who choose a Catholic education for their children. When I was doorknocking recently, the number of people I came across who had chosen to send their children to the local parochial school in the area where I was
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