Mr TOYNE - 1999-11-23
The Collins report heavily criticised the education outcomes for indigenous people in the Northern Territory. With education for all a core function of state and territory governments, will the minister explain why expenditure on remote-area schools has fallen by 30%, from $59m in 1997-98 to an estimated $41m in the 1999-2000 budget?
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, it appears that the member for Stuart must have attended the same mathematics brush-up course that his leader undertook because that is not the story. Aboriginal education spending, both in terms of bricks and mortar and - I notice the honourable member isn’t even bothering to listen to the answer to this question – recurrent-type expenditure for personnel has increased, not decreased. I will say it again: it has increased and not decreased.
If you want to stand here and make those unsubstantiated allegations, back them up. The budget figures speak for themselves. We are frequently finding that the honourable member is being very cute with some of the internal restructures of the department. We saw it, for instance, in the last session of parliament when the implication was made that the entire budget for education in the Northern Territory came out of the Aboriginal directorate of the department.
I know I am not allowed to say that the member has lied. I say that that implication made last sittings was a total, bare-faced misrepresentation of the facts. Those figures did not represent the entire picture in terms of spending on Aboriginal education in the Northern Territory. He is very selective with his facts, and entirely out of place when he puts that particular case. He is selectively quoting figures. He has priors for this. We saw it last sittings. I tabled press releases and documents last sittings that, by his own hand and by his own admission, conflicted and contradicted themselves. I am happy to do that again. Once again, he is selectively quoting and misquoting figures.
The spending is up. In fact, in education spending across the board it is up, both for black and for white, bricks and mortar and recurrent. Expenditure is not down; it is on the rise. Once again the member should be ashamed of himself.
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, it appears that the member for Stuart must have attended the same mathematics brush-up course that his leader undertook because that is not the story. Aboriginal education spending, both in terms of bricks and mortar and - I notice the honourable member isn’t even bothering to listen to the answer to this question – recurrent-type expenditure for personnel has increased, not decreased. I will say it again: it has increased and not decreased.
If you want to stand here and make those unsubstantiated allegations, back them up. The budget figures speak for themselves. We are frequently finding that the honourable member is being very cute with some of the internal restructures of the department. We saw it, for instance, in the last session of parliament when the implication was made that the entire budget for education in the Northern Territory came out of the Aboriginal directorate of the department.
I know I am not allowed to say that the member has lied. I say that that implication made last sittings was a total, bare-faced misrepresentation of the facts. Those figures did not represent the entire picture in terms of spending on Aboriginal education in the Northern Territory. He is very selective with his facts, and entirely out of place when he puts that particular case. He is selectively quoting figures. He has priors for this. We saw it last sittings. I tabled press releases and documents last sittings that, by his own hand and by his own admission, conflicted and contradicted themselves. I am happy to do that again. Once again, he is selectively quoting and misquoting figures.
The spending is up. In fact, in education spending across the board it is up, both for black and for white, bricks and mortar and recurrent. Expenditure is not down; it is on the rise. Once again the member should be ashamed of himself.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016