Mr GUNNER - 2016-05-24
Despite your promises in the lead-up to this budget, you are spending less on schools today than the last Labor budget in 2012-13. In 2012 Labor allocated $562m of Territory money to schools. Today, four years later, you are proposing to spend $560m of Territory government money, a cut in actual terms and a cut in real terms. Why will you not fix the damage your cuts have caused to Territory schools?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I implore the Leader of the Opposition to get a briefing. He has no idea when it comes to budgeting for schools. We know that; he was part of a team that had no control over the education system.
I implore you to speak to some of the senior bureaucrats within the Department of Education and ask them if they would prefer to work in the system they have today, a system we have created over the last three years, or what they had three or four years ago? The answer will be that they would much prefer to work in the system they have today.
Not long ago there were 30, 40 maybe even 50 agreements with the then Labor government in Canberra. Those agreements all had processes and reporting mechanisms. You needed a bureaucracy just to do the reporting that had to go on between the Northern Territory government and the federal government. Do you know how many we have today? We have eight agreements with the federal government, focused on outcomes and reporting on outcomes, not reporting on processes. That is just one example of how over-bureaucratic the Labor government was, and its education system.
What have we done with that education system? We have created a system which is getting better results than were ever achieved under Labor. This system puts more children through the NTCET than ever before, and is getting better results than during the 12 years Labor was in government. They still want to criticise a Country Liberals government that has systematically made reforms within education based on the back of very intelligent people who have gone the extra measure in providing recommendations to us through a number of reports. Based on science, we have implemented those recommendations, and guess what? The seeds have been sown, the results are getting better and we have set a platform that will benefit Territorians for decades to come. That is unless we go back to the dark ages of bureaucracy and wasted money in education, just like what happened under Labor. It was getting worse results and we are getting better results.
Today we have a more efficient system than under Labor. The choice is clear. Go back to the way it was where results were not as good, or continue on the path we have taken, which is providing better results, better resources and a larger budget than under a Labor government.
Madam SPEAKER: Minister, your time has expired.
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I implore the Leader of the Opposition to get a briefing. He has no idea when it comes to budgeting for schools. We know that; he was part of a team that had no control over the education system.
I implore you to speak to some of the senior bureaucrats within the Department of Education and ask them if they would prefer to work in the system they have today, a system we have created over the last three years, or what they had three or four years ago? The answer will be that they would much prefer to work in the system they have today.
Not long ago there were 30, 40 maybe even 50 agreements with the then Labor government in Canberra. Those agreements all had processes and reporting mechanisms. You needed a bureaucracy just to do the reporting that had to go on between the Northern Territory government and the federal government. Do you know how many we have today? We have eight agreements with the federal government, focused on outcomes and reporting on outcomes, not reporting on processes. That is just one example of how over-bureaucratic the Labor government was, and its education system.
What have we done with that education system? We have created a system which is getting better results than were ever achieved under Labor. This system puts more children through the NTCET than ever before, and is getting better results than during the 12 years Labor was in government. They still want to criticise a Country Liberals government that has systematically made reforms within education based on the back of very intelligent people who have gone the extra measure in providing recommendations to us through a number of reports. Based on science, we have implemented those recommendations, and guess what? The seeds have been sown, the results are getting better and we have set a platform that will benefit Territorians for decades to come. That is unless we go back to the dark ages of bureaucracy and wasted money in education, just like what happened under Labor. It was getting worse results and we are getting better results.
Today we have a more efficient system than under Labor. The choice is clear. Go back to the way it was where results were not as good, or continue on the path we have taken, which is providing better results, better resources and a larger budget than under a Labor government.
Madam SPEAKER: Minister, your time has expired.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016