Page 1890 - Week 05 - Thursday, 16 May 2019
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than that, we now know that this minister does not even respect the very people—our students—that rely on her for their future.
I commend the motion brought forward by Mr Coe today. I look forward to the former education minister and Greens leader showing us what he believes is an acceptable standard of behaviour for an education minister in charge of 88 schools and 48,000 students. As a former shadow education minister, I want these students to know that, despite the disrespect of their minister, they are valued by the community, they are valued by the Canberra Liberals and that no test determines whether they are, in the minister’s words, dumb or smart.
MR HANSON (Murrumbidgee) (6.18): I am a parent of a child who is participating in NAPLAN today and I therefore relate to many thousands of fellow Canberra parents who are distressed by the minister’s comments. Having spoken to other parents, the consensus is that NAPLAN is a useful tool because it provides clarity for teachers and parents as to how children are progressing with their academic results.
I spoke today to a parent of a child I know well. He is a lovely kid; he has a high IQ but he has mild ADHD and mild dyslexia. As a result that child struggles with self-confidence about his intelligence. It is not that he is not intelligent; it is just that he has learning difficulties. Describing as “dumb” the kids who have those sorts of learning difficulties and who sometimes perform poorly in tests as a result is incredibly hurtful. The parents of that child are very distressed. Thankfully, that child is unaware of the minister’s comments because they would cause yet more distress to that child who already suffers from lack of confidence in relation to their intelligence. I know this kid very well and I know they have a high IQ.
I am disappointed that the minister did not come in here and just accept that she got this one wrong, accept the responsibility for that and accept that this has caused hurt. There is no excuse for this. No self-justification should be necessary or deemed acceptable. Sometimes in life, as MLAs and leaders in our community, we get it wrong. When we do, it is important to send a message to the parents and to their kids: “I got it wrong. I unreservedly withdraw what I said. I accept full responsibility.” The minister has not done that.
This has been an exercise in justification of the minister’s comments. She has diminished herself further by doing that and has further clouded this issue. I fully support this censure motion. If the minister had unreservedly apologised and not tried to justify it, I would not feel as strongly as I do. A lot of people have been hurt by this and the minister needs to acknowledge it.
MR BARR (Kurrajong—Chief Minister, Treasurer, Minister for Social Inclusion and Equality, Minister for Tourism and Special Events and Minister for Trade, Industry and Investment) (6.21): It goes without saying that the government will not be supporting what is another political stunt from the opposition. The Deputy Chief Minister has been clear that she misspoke. She has apologised for that and set out the context in which the remarks and the misspeak were made and the point she was endeavouring to make—that she has consistently been making over quite some time now—about how NAPLAN data is misused by some elements of the media in order
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