Mr STIRLING - 1996-02-22
Three days ago, the Department of Education circulated a memorandum advising people on action they can take in the current teachers' dispute. The circular spends 12 pages providing the CLP position in relation to the dispute and then, at the last page, advises school councils on the way in which they can move their schools out of the government system and become an independent school. Many Territorians will be angered by this move and they will
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want to know whether the Country Liberal Party government is using the teachers' dispute as a way of furthering its ideological aim of dismantling the public education system. Will the minister comment?
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, I do not even know what document the honourable member is talking about.
Mr Ede interjecting.
Mr HATTON: I really do not know what document he is talking about.
A member interjecting.
Mr HATTON: What a grubby little individual he is! I am aware that a document has been prepared that looks at a series of questions that we expected may be asked by principals and by school councils. We sought to provide answers to all questions that we could conceive of as likely to be asked, to keep people informed of the situation.
We do not have a policy or a strategy to privatise government schools in the Northern Territory. A whole variety of possibilities and ideas have been bounced around by people at different times. At the end of the day, we are working to ensure that we are able to deliver quality education despite the extraordinary provocation we are being subjected to by the trade union.
Mr Stirling: Not to mention your own.
Mr HATTON: I have not been provocative. You ain't seen provocative, I tell you now.
Mr Stirling: You call them Nazis, you call them terrorists, you call them guerillas and you say that is not provocative! I would hate to see you being provocative.
Mr SPEAKER: Order!
Mr HATTON: I happen to think that it is a guerilla tactic. It is like that. They have been upsetting kids' education for 6 months. For 6 months now, they have been mucking around with the education of kids in the Territory, and I have had enough of it. For 6 months, they have been getting stuck into it.
Mr Bailey: Yes, and you have done nothing for 6 months, instead of trying to solve the problem.
Mr SPEAKER: Order!
Mr HATTON: Oh dear, I have done nothing? That is why we made several offers to try to find a solution to this problem last year, is it? It is not interested in a solution. It wants
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a fight. There has been no indication at all from the union, since August last year, that it wants to do anything other than fight The forgotten people in this whole exercise have been the students. Why doesn't the teachers' union think about the students?
Members interjecting.
Mr SPEAKER: Order!
Mr HATTON: Its first reaction was industrial action, not negotiation. While everyone else was talking, while we were still talking, it was taking industrial action against the kids. In August last year, it placed bans.
Mr Bailey: They have negotiated for months.
Mr HATTON: Oh yes? And is it really normal practice, when you are in negotiations and trying to maintain good faith in those negotiations, that you whack bans and limitations on your work?
Mr Bailey: That was not the first course of action.
Mr HATTON: That is what it did in August last year.
Mr Bailey: How long had negotiations continued prior to that?
Mr HATTON: For 2 or 3 months, and then it whacked the bans on. We keep talking with the union, trying to find a solution, and it ups the ante. It continues to up the ante on the bans. I think about those students.
Mr Stirling: You call them Nazis ...
Mr SPEAKER: Order!
Mr HATTON: It has to be brought to a head. I will not sit back any longer and allow the union to do this to our students.
Mr Ede: Big, macho Steve! He is going to take it out on the kids.
Mr HATTON: I am not taking it out on the kids. I am trying to support the kids, and I am very pleased to know that today, despite mass meetings across the Territory, every school is open and operating.
Mrs Hickey: Not Henbury Avenue.
Mr HATTON: Except Henbury Avenue, for 2 hours, which I noted yesterday, because of the very special nature of that particular school. That was done in consultation with the parents. However, all the other schools are operating and I think that it is really good for the students that the schools are able to continue operating.
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Mr Ede: They have been operating as child-minding centres.
Mr SPEAKER: Order!
Mr HATTON: I am not being provocative on this one. I am trying to react to intense provocation offered over many months and I am trying to react in the mildest, most measured way I can. If the union wants to keep pushing it, it will be continually escalating this situation, sadly.
Mr Ede: You are.
Mr HATTON: No, it is the union. They are the people who are out on strike. They are the ones holding ...
Mr Stirling: You are making inflammatory statements.
Mr HATTON: ... mass meetings. It is the union that bans educational activities for kids. It will not even allow primary school kids to have sport during recess and at lunchtime.
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want to know whether the Country Liberal Party government is using the teachers' dispute as a way of furthering its ideological aim of dismantling the public education system. Will the minister comment?
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, I do not even know what document the honourable member is talking about.
Mr Ede interjecting.
Mr HATTON: I really do not know what document he is talking about.
A member interjecting.
Mr HATTON: What a grubby little individual he is! I am aware that a document has been prepared that looks at a series of questions that we expected may be asked by principals and by school councils. We sought to provide answers to all questions that we could conceive of as likely to be asked, to keep people informed of the situation.
We do not have a policy or a strategy to privatise government schools in the Northern Territory. A whole variety of possibilities and ideas have been bounced around by people at different times. At the end of the day, we are working to ensure that we are able to deliver quality education despite the extraordinary provocation we are being subjected to by the trade union.
Mr Stirling: Not to mention your own.
Mr HATTON: I have not been provocative. You ain't seen provocative, I tell you now.
Mr Stirling: You call them Nazis, you call them terrorists, you call them guerillas and you say that is not provocative! I would hate to see you being provocative.
Mr SPEAKER: Order!
Mr HATTON: I happen to think that it is a guerilla tactic. It is like that. They have been upsetting kids' education for 6 months. For 6 months now, they have been mucking around with the education of kids in the Territory, and I have had enough of it. For 6 months, they have been getting stuck into it.
Mr Bailey: Yes, and you have done nothing for 6 months, instead of trying to solve the problem.
Mr SPEAKER: Order!
Mr HATTON: Oh dear, I have done nothing? That is why we made several offers to try to find a solution to this problem last year, is it? It is not interested in a solution. It wants
Page 1206
a fight. There has been no indication at all from the union, since August last year, that it wants to do anything other than fight The forgotten people in this whole exercise have been the students. Why doesn't the teachers' union think about the students?
Members interjecting.
Mr SPEAKER: Order!
Mr HATTON: Its first reaction was industrial action, not negotiation. While everyone else was talking, while we were still talking, it was taking industrial action against the kids. In August last year, it placed bans.
Mr Bailey: They have negotiated for months.
Mr HATTON: Oh yes? And is it really normal practice, when you are in negotiations and trying to maintain good faith in those negotiations, that you whack bans and limitations on your work?
Mr Bailey: That was not the first course of action.
Mr HATTON: That is what it did in August last year.
Mr Bailey: How long had negotiations continued prior to that?
Mr HATTON: For 2 or 3 months, and then it whacked the bans on. We keep talking with the union, trying to find a solution, and it ups the ante. It continues to up the ante on the bans. I think about those students.
Mr Stirling: You call them Nazis ...
Mr SPEAKER: Order!
Mr HATTON: It has to be brought to a head. I will not sit back any longer and allow the union to do this to our students.
Mr Ede: Big, macho Steve! He is going to take it out on the kids.
Mr HATTON: I am not taking it out on the kids. I am trying to support the kids, and I am very pleased to know that today, despite mass meetings across the Territory, every school is open and operating.
Mrs Hickey: Not Henbury Avenue.
Mr HATTON: Except Henbury Avenue, for 2 hours, which I noted yesterday, because of the very special nature of that particular school. That was done in consultation with the parents. However, all the other schools are operating and I think that it is really good for the students that the schools are able to continue operating.
Page 1207
Mr Ede: They have been operating as child-minding centres.
Mr SPEAKER: Order!
Mr HATTON: I am not being provocative on this one. I am trying to react to intense provocation offered over many months and I am trying to react in the mildest, most measured way I can. If the union wants to keep pushing it, it will be continually escalating this situation, sadly.
Mr Ede: You are.
Mr HATTON: No, it is the union. They are the people who are out on strike. They are the ones holding ...
Mr Stirling: You are making inflammatory statements.
Mr HATTON: ... mass meetings. It is the union that bans educational activities for kids. It will not even allow primary school kids to have sport during recess and at lunchtime.
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Last updated: 09 Aug 2016