Ms LAWRIE - 2013-08-28
You are sacking teachers and have confirmed it, despite your promise to not sack any frontline workers. Your priorities are all wrong. You cannot improve education by cutting teachers, removing subjects and reducing the vital one-on-one time students have with their teachers. Parents understand the education outcome - their child cannot improve - if teachers are cut from our schools. Parents do not believe you. Why are you trying to convince parents in the Territory that fewer teachers is a good thing?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Karama for her question. It is proof again that the Opposition Leader fails to listen because the same questions were asked yesterday, and I will give the same answers today. This is probably why the opposition is in opposition. They failed to listen and we have proof of that.
We have 1871 teachers in government schools throughout the Northern Territory. With the application of the new teacher staffing formula we will have 1836. That is around 35 fewer teachers than we had last year.
The opposition failed to mention we are putting 64 additional teachers into the primary sector, an area the experts are telling us we should be focusing on. Two-thirds of our schools in the Northern Territory are primary schools and two-thirds of our students are of primary school age. We are supporting the majority of schools in the Northern Territory and putting the resources into the areas where the experts, not the former Labor government, advise us to.
This all comes down to several facts. Sometimes it is not always about money. One thing the former Labor government cannot be proud of is the academic achievements of many of our students in the Northern Territory. It is time to challenge convention. We can argue that what we have in the Northern Territory, and the former policies we had in place, have taken us to where we are today. If we want to see improvements we need to challenge convention and do things a little differently. That is why I have called for an Indigenous education review. There has not been one since 2009.
When we go to Canberra asking for funds, whether it is for infrastructure or supporting education, we know why we are asking for the money and where to better place it ...
Ms LAWRIE: A point of order, Madam Speaker! Standing Order 113: relevance. You are sacking teachers from bush schools where there are Indigenous students, and from urban schools where there are Indigenous students.
Madam SPEAKER: There is no point of order. Minister, you have the call.
Mr CHANDLER: Madam Speaker, the nub of this comes down to resources and the poor fiscal position we were left in by the failed former Treasurer. If Territorians have any concerns with some of the savings initiatives put in place by this government, they should be focusing their anger at the former government which put us in this fiscal position. That is where the anger should be. We are doing the best we can with the resources available and the position we were left in by the former Labor government in the Northern Territory.
This former government - the Opposition Leader and the opposition - wants us to sign up to the Gonski model of education. They want us to give less control to the Education department in the Northern Territory and hand it all over to Canberra ...
Madam SPEAKER: Minister, your time has expired.
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Karama for her question. It is proof again that the Opposition Leader fails to listen because the same questions were asked yesterday, and I will give the same answers today. This is probably why the opposition is in opposition. They failed to listen and we have proof of that.
We have 1871 teachers in government schools throughout the Northern Territory. With the application of the new teacher staffing formula we will have 1836. That is around 35 fewer teachers than we had last year.
The opposition failed to mention we are putting 64 additional teachers into the primary sector, an area the experts are telling us we should be focusing on. Two-thirds of our schools in the Northern Territory are primary schools and two-thirds of our students are of primary school age. We are supporting the majority of schools in the Northern Territory and putting the resources into the areas where the experts, not the former Labor government, advise us to.
This all comes down to several facts. Sometimes it is not always about money. One thing the former Labor government cannot be proud of is the academic achievements of many of our students in the Northern Territory. It is time to challenge convention. We can argue that what we have in the Northern Territory, and the former policies we had in place, have taken us to where we are today. If we want to see improvements we need to challenge convention and do things a little differently. That is why I have called for an Indigenous education review. There has not been one since 2009.
When we go to Canberra asking for funds, whether it is for infrastructure or supporting education, we know why we are asking for the money and where to better place it ...
Ms LAWRIE: A point of order, Madam Speaker! Standing Order 113: relevance. You are sacking teachers from bush schools where there are Indigenous students, and from urban schools where there are Indigenous students.
Madam SPEAKER: There is no point of order. Minister, you have the call.
Mr CHANDLER: Madam Speaker, the nub of this comes down to resources and the poor fiscal position we were left in by the failed former Treasurer. If Territorians have any concerns with some of the savings initiatives put in place by this government, they should be focusing their anger at the former government which put us in this fiscal position. That is where the anger should be. We are doing the best we can with the resources available and the position we were left in by the former Labor government in the Northern Territory.
This former government - the Opposition Leader and the opposition - wants us to sign up to the Gonski model of education. They want us to give less control to the Education department in the Northern Territory and hand it all over to Canberra ...
Madam SPEAKER: Minister, your time has expired.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016