Page 3029 - Week 10 - Wednesday, 14 August 2013
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Torres Strait Islander community is mentioned. What we are doing on the one hand we are not doing on the other. Where is the bush healing farm? How are we going in closing the gap? I think when you look at the statistics and the results, we are certainly not doing as well as we should be.
The point that needs to be addressed is the fact that Dr Bourke has a one-eyed view of what this government does. This is not a balanced motion. This is just another exercise in trying to congratulate the government. I refer to the dissenting report, which also is Dr Bourke’s view of the budget. He said in the report that I should be condemned for my partisan view during proceedings. Dr Bourke’s view there was that Mr Hanson and perhaps Mr Smyth have one view of the government. But he has this balanced view, does he? He also said that things should be done in a collaborative manner.
Let us go through this report, the 575 recommendations, and see if we can find any balance in this report. I will look for the balance. I think there are over 500 recommendations simply commending the government for the work that they do. In fact, they commend them so thoroughly that they commend them for the same things repeatedly. I go to recommendation 16:
Dr Bourke and Mr Gentleman recommend that the ACT Government look at “tools on the market” that identify students that might benefit from a gifted and talented program.
They were so in love with that recommendation that at recommendation 19 they said:
Dr Bourke and Mr Gentleman recommend that government look at “tools on the market” that identify students that might benefit from a gifted and talented program.
They felt so passionately about that that they put that recommendation in twice. Maybe there is one from Dr Bourke and one from Mr Gentleman. They said at recommendation 17 that:
… the ACT Government looks at options for acceleration of gifted and talented students.
And in case we had forgotten, they put it in again at recommendation 20:
Dr Bourke and Mr Gentleman recommend the ACT Government looks at options for acceleration of gifted and talented students.
What a high quality product this is! What a high quality review of the ACT government! What biting analysis this is of the government’s budget and its priorities! Oh, what is this? They recommend that:
… the ACT Government investigate support for accommodation programs for at-risk gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer people.
And then they say it again:
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