Dr LIM - 1999-04-29
In light of this week’s Territory budget, where there were no cuts in education, the opposition has been running a campaign of scaremongering and misinformation. As one of the members from Alice Springs, it is of particular concern to me that the member for Stuart is claiming that the future of Anzac Hill High School is in doubt. Typical of him, he has sought to spread vicious rumours without any foundation, to cause community unrest. His comments have caused great concern to parents, students, teachers and staff at the school. I recall a fight that the Alice Springs community took up to prevent a threatened closure of the school several years ago. Can the minister please clarify the situation?
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, I am grateful for the question from the honourable member. In fact, I am grateful for an education question from this side, because I’m certainly not getting any from the other side. Here we are, 2 days after a budget including significant policy decisions, both ongoing and new, and not a peep out of the opposition in terms of questions on the education budget. One can only assume that, as usual, they are totally at a loss.
This is another example of what I was talking about yesterday. The opposition is using a section of the community as nothing more than a political football. On the member for Stuart’s own admission, he is dealing in rumours. He said as much yesterday on the radio. He said: ‘We’re hearing some rumours about Anzac Hill High School being perhaps discontinued’. By his own words, he stands condemned. The person peddling the rumours was him, the member for Stuart. Is it hurting me as the minister, or the government? No. Who is it hurting? It is hurting the students and the staff at Anzac Hill High School.
I will certainly be passing on a confirmation to the school, for the staff and the students, that the school is not closing. I will also be passing on to them who the source of the rumour is, because we should be left in no doubt whatsoever that this is nothing more than a distortion of the facts - another one of these totally gross misrepresentations of where we stand.
Of course, we saw that yesterday in the Opposition Leader’s reply to the budget, claiming that there are cuts in education when there are no cuts in education. The Leader of the Opposition claims that we’ve cut remote schools by more than $1m. That even contradicts the member for Stuart. The ABC in Alice Springs said to me the member for Stuart claims we’ve cut it by $8.4m. So the opposition can’t even get their misinformation right. The teamwork of these 2! The ABC says the member for Stuart says it’s $8.4m, and the Leader of the Opposition says it’s actually not that bad - it’s only $1m.
The commitment in the bush is an increase of $400 000 to maintain that staffing formula that we were praised so widely for last year. We maintain that commitment. There are no cuts - I repeat, no cuts - to education programs in the bush.
The Leader of the Opposition says there’s a cut of $1.5m to the budgets for preschools and primary schools. Not only are there no cuts, but we’re extending preschools. We’re building extensions there and we’re putting extensions into existing primary schools as well. In addition to that, we’re maintaining the additional $4.6m commitment that we gave last year, with the extra ...
Mr STIRLING: A point of order, Mr Speaker! The minister has a chance to respond in the budget debate the same as everyone else. He can’t use Question Time to give his budget reply speech.
Mr SPEAKER: Order! I ask the minister to wind the answer up as quickly as possible. The question was reasonably specific, and I would appreciate it if he would contain the answer to that.
Mr ADAMSON: Certainly, Mr Speaker. I shall do that. But it is important, and it is in the context of what the member has raised, that there is this perception that there are cutbacks. In that context I can assure Territorians that, far from a cutback of $1.5m in the city, we are in fact increasing our commitment and there are no cuts.
In conclusion, we had the shadow spokesperson for sport claiming that we’ve increased the funding of the bureaucracy of the department $3.9m to $8m. I don’t know what they’re smoking over there, but I certainly don’t want any of it.
There are no cuts to education. Anzac Hill High School is remaining open. By his own admission, the member for Stuart is dealing in rumours and he stands condemned for it. I ask him to desist from this misinformation because he is doing himself, the people of Alice Springs and, in particular, the good folk at Anzac Hill High School a great, great disservice.
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, I am grateful for the question from the honourable member. In fact, I am grateful for an education question from this side, because I’m certainly not getting any from the other side. Here we are, 2 days after a budget including significant policy decisions, both ongoing and new, and not a peep out of the opposition in terms of questions on the education budget. One can only assume that, as usual, they are totally at a loss.
This is another example of what I was talking about yesterday. The opposition is using a section of the community as nothing more than a political football. On the member for Stuart’s own admission, he is dealing in rumours. He said as much yesterday on the radio. He said: ‘We’re hearing some rumours about Anzac Hill High School being perhaps discontinued’. By his own words, he stands condemned. The person peddling the rumours was him, the member for Stuart. Is it hurting me as the minister, or the government? No. Who is it hurting? It is hurting the students and the staff at Anzac Hill High School.
I will certainly be passing on a confirmation to the school, for the staff and the students, that the school is not closing. I will also be passing on to them who the source of the rumour is, because we should be left in no doubt whatsoever that this is nothing more than a distortion of the facts - another one of these totally gross misrepresentations of where we stand.
Of course, we saw that yesterday in the Opposition Leader’s reply to the budget, claiming that there are cuts in education when there are no cuts in education. The Leader of the Opposition claims that we’ve cut remote schools by more than $1m. That even contradicts the member for Stuart. The ABC in Alice Springs said to me the member for Stuart claims we’ve cut it by $8.4m. So the opposition can’t even get their misinformation right. The teamwork of these 2! The ABC says the member for Stuart says it’s $8.4m, and the Leader of the Opposition says it’s actually not that bad - it’s only $1m.
The commitment in the bush is an increase of $400 000 to maintain that staffing formula that we were praised so widely for last year. We maintain that commitment. There are no cuts - I repeat, no cuts - to education programs in the bush.
The Leader of the Opposition says there’s a cut of $1.5m to the budgets for preschools and primary schools. Not only are there no cuts, but we’re extending preschools. We’re building extensions there and we’re putting extensions into existing primary schools as well. In addition to that, we’re maintaining the additional $4.6m commitment that we gave last year, with the extra ...
Mr STIRLING: A point of order, Mr Speaker! The minister has a chance to respond in the budget debate the same as everyone else. He can’t use Question Time to give his budget reply speech.
Mr SPEAKER: Order! I ask the minister to wind the answer up as quickly as possible. The question was reasonably specific, and I would appreciate it if he would contain the answer to that.
Mr ADAMSON: Certainly, Mr Speaker. I shall do that. But it is important, and it is in the context of what the member has raised, that there is this perception that there are cutbacks. In that context I can assure Territorians that, far from a cutback of $1.5m in the city, we are in fact increasing our commitment and there are no cuts.
In conclusion, we had the shadow spokesperson for sport claiming that we’ve increased the funding of the bureaucracy of the department $3.9m to $8m. I don’t know what they’re smoking over there, but I certainly don’t want any of it.
There are no cuts to education. Anzac Hill High School is remaining open. By his own admission, the member for Stuart is dealing in rumours and he stands condemned for it. I ask him to desist from this misinformation because he is doing himself, the people of Alice Springs and, in particular, the good folk at Anzac Hill High School a great, great disservice.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016