Mr ADAMSON - 1995-05-18
Yesterday, the minister informed the Assembly about the federal government's unfortunate cutbacks in education funding for the Northern Territory. Given the lack of apparent action and concern from the Territory's federal member, Warren Snowdon, has the minister been able to identify any positive outcomes from the federal education budget that will apply in the Territory?
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, it was interesting to hear the retaliation from the member for the Northern Territory this morning on the radio. This man is a self-confessed failure. He has failed to deliver to Territorians what is their due. Instead of trying to answer why he had turned his back on students at Papunya, Yuendumu and Gapuwiyak, and instead of explaining why he had dumped some of these programs, all he wanted to say was: `We have reallocated priorities'. What does he mean by `reallocated priorities'? What he means is that he has put the Canberra case of no priority for the Northern Territory and his constituents.
Mr Bell: He is trying to fill in the gaps you blokes leave because you have wasted ...
Mr FINCH: There are no gaps at all! Some of the new programs he is talking about have merit. However, what I am trying to say is that they have more merit for Canberra than for Papunya.
Mr Bell: They have to pick up the local roads bill because you lost the money on your expensive ...
Mr FINCH: It is all right for you to try to defend him, but he is a self-confessed failure. He does not need you to defend him now.
I can understand why the member for Nhulunbuy is sitting quietly today. The irony is that, just 4 weeks before the meeting of business people in Nhulunbuy at which the member for Nhulunbuy was castigated publicly by the federal member, he accused the member for
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Nhulunbuy of grandstanding. He went on to the effect that he had tried to influence Minister Walker and the Department of Defence - that is, to get more jobs for the bush - but to no avail. Of course, he confesses that he cannot deliver. This man sits on the right-hand side of god, as the Parliamentary Secretary to the minister. He has enormous influence, and what has he come up with? New money for teacher conferences but cuts to the education centres which deliver to Papunya. These teacher conferences will be very good for New South Wales and Melbourne where all the money for teacher conferences will be going. Teachers in those centres receive regular support from their peers anyway.
Mr Bailey: Who closed schools across the Northern Territory? The little fat member for Port Darwin!
Members interjecting.
Mr SPEAKER: Order!
Mr FINCH: They demonstrate to the students in the gallery here - who will, of course, gain from some of these federal programs ...
Mr Bailey: You closed schools across the Territory yet you criticise other ...
Mr SPEAKER: Order!
Mr FINCH: The more they squeak, the more clearly they demonstrate that they are embarrassed by this failed Labor colleague of theirs, the federal member for the Northern Territory.
Mr Bell: Get on with it, Fred!
Mr FINCH: How do you answer this one? This is a really good one. See whether you can defend it: there is to be more money for teaching civics to students. `Civics' is what the federal government's original republican program is called now. It has had to modify its original republican program and call it `civics'. Of course, these young students from Nakara have been studying about government and the Constitution quite positively in the Northern Territory. They now have an extra little kit to put under their arms which will teach them about the republic, but how much relevance will these kits about the republic have for students at Papunya?
There is more money for promoting excellence in schools, but no increase for Aboriginal ESL. I do not know where members opposite get to when they are out bush, if they have not heard the same cries that I have heard over the last 2 or 3 years - cries that have been relayed directly to Warren Snowdon and Bob Collins. At least, Bob Collins took up an opportunity to be briefed on this issue. Warren Snowdon would not do that.
The centralist federal government in Canberra is prepared to pay ESL money to migrant students - and it is a good scheme. To the young Greek students, the Vietnamese students and others who come from all corners of the world and who do not have English as their first language, the federal government is happy to pay that ESL money, but it refuses to pay it for
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the member for MacDonnell's students at Papunya, the member for Nhulunbuy's students at Gapuwiyak, the member for Stuart's ...
Mr Stirling: It is the member for Arnhem, actually.
Mr FINCH: ... students at Yuendumu etc. For them, there is not a dollar other than the base payment.
Mr Stirling: However, your government has not provided a speech therapist for the last 3 years.
Mr FINCH: This government has delivered. It delivered ...
Mr Stirling: Speech therapy ...
Members interjecting.
Mr SPEAKER: Order!
Mr FINCH: ... therapists of every description in the last budget. Didn't you listen to all of that?
The federal member is an absolute failure. What has he done with the $1200m cut to DEET through the One Nation program? We are whittling it out little by little. He says that it is all `reallocating priorities'. I admit that there must be programs which ought to be dispensed with. There are some that have been ineffective and others where there is overlap or duplication. We will have all the details sooner or later when he does come clean. But, why cut the Skillshare programs thereby ensuring that, in the main, there will be shorter training programs for these unemployed young people, at the very difficult end of the client spectrum? Why has the federal government decided that it can get away with a shorter contact time with these people?
Mr Stirling: These are what you used to call mickey mouse courses.
Mr FINCH: No! I have been involved with Skillshare and its predecessors for 12 years. I have had 12 years hands-on experience of it. I know the value of the program. It is no secret that I am chairman of the Darwin Skillshare program. That is my level of involvement and my commitment. I do not know what yours is. You seem to want to sit over there squawking your support for this man. Only one month before he publicly castigated you, you issued a press release saying, among other things, that it was `also a solid demonstration of the ability of Senator Collins and Warren Snowdon to deliver results for the Northern Territory'. You must have nearly choked on those words!
Let us have no more of this nonsense. The federal government is scrapping meaningful programs in the name of reordering priorities. What we need to hear from members opposite, because Warren Snowdon will not confess it, is what justification there is for changing that program and adversely affecting Territorians, in particular Territorians in the bush. Certainly, we will learn a great deal more about that in the next week or so. In the meantime, I ask
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members opposite not only to reflect on the good news that was in the last Territory budget, but to open their ears to what Territorians will receive in terms of improvements to education because further improvements for education will be introduced in the budget that is to be brought down this morning.
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ANSWER
Mr Speaker, it was interesting to hear the retaliation from the member for the Northern Territory this morning on the radio. This man is a self-confessed failure. He has failed to deliver to Territorians what is their due. Instead of trying to answer why he had turned his back on students at Papunya, Yuendumu and Gapuwiyak, and instead of explaining why he had dumped some of these programs, all he wanted to say was: `We have reallocated priorities'. What does he mean by `reallocated priorities'? What he means is that he has put the Canberra case of no priority for the Northern Territory and his constituents.
Mr Bell: He is trying to fill in the gaps you blokes leave because you have wasted ...
Mr FINCH: There are no gaps at all! Some of the new programs he is talking about have merit. However, what I am trying to say is that they have more merit for Canberra than for Papunya.
Mr Bell: They have to pick up the local roads bill because you lost the money on your expensive ...
Mr FINCH: It is all right for you to try to defend him, but he is a self-confessed failure. He does not need you to defend him now.
I can understand why the member for Nhulunbuy is sitting quietly today. The irony is that, just 4 weeks before the meeting of business people in Nhulunbuy at which the member for Nhulunbuy was castigated publicly by the federal member, he accused the member for
Page 555
Nhulunbuy of grandstanding. He went on to the effect that he had tried to influence Minister Walker and the Department of Defence - that is, to get more jobs for the bush - but to no avail. Of course, he confesses that he cannot deliver. This man sits on the right-hand side of god, as the Parliamentary Secretary to the minister. He has enormous influence, and what has he come up with? New money for teacher conferences but cuts to the education centres which deliver to Papunya. These teacher conferences will be very good for New South Wales and Melbourne where all the money for teacher conferences will be going. Teachers in those centres receive regular support from their peers anyway.
Mr Bailey: Who closed schools across the Northern Territory? The little fat member for Port Darwin!
Members interjecting.
Mr SPEAKER: Order!
Mr FINCH: They demonstrate to the students in the gallery here - who will, of course, gain from some of these federal programs ...
Mr Bailey: You closed schools across the Territory yet you criticise other ...
Mr SPEAKER: Order!
Mr FINCH: The more they squeak, the more clearly they demonstrate that they are embarrassed by this failed Labor colleague of theirs, the federal member for the Northern Territory.
Mr Bell: Get on with it, Fred!
Mr FINCH: How do you answer this one? This is a really good one. See whether you can defend it: there is to be more money for teaching civics to students. `Civics' is what the federal government's original republican program is called now. It has had to modify its original republican program and call it `civics'. Of course, these young students from Nakara have been studying about government and the Constitution quite positively in the Northern Territory. They now have an extra little kit to put under their arms which will teach them about the republic, but how much relevance will these kits about the republic have for students at Papunya?
There is more money for promoting excellence in schools, but no increase for Aboriginal ESL. I do not know where members opposite get to when they are out bush, if they have not heard the same cries that I have heard over the last 2 or 3 years - cries that have been relayed directly to Warren Snowdon and Bob Collins. At least, Bob Collins took up an opportunity to be briefed on this issue. Warren Snowdon would not do that.
The centralist federal government in Canberra is prepared to pay ESL money to migrant students - and it is a good scheme. To the young Greek students, the Vietnamese students and others who come from all corners of the world and who do not have English as their first language, the federal government is happy to pay that ESL money, but it refuses to pay it for
Page 556
the member for MacDonnell's students at Papunya, the member for Nhulunbuy's students at Gapuwiyak, the member for Stuart's ...
Mr Stirling: It is the member for Arnhem, actually.
Mr FINCH: ... students at Yuendumu etc. For them, there is not a dollar other than the base payment.
Mr Stirling: However, your government has not provided a speech therapist for the last 3 years.
Mr FINCH: This government has delivered. It delivered ...
Mr Stirling: Speech therapy ...
Members interjecting.
Mr SPEAKER: Order!
Mr FINCH: ... therapists of every description in the last budget. Didn't you listen to all of that?
The federal member is an absolute failure. What has he done with the $1200m cut to DEET through the One Nation program? We are whittling it out little by little. He says that it is all `reallocating priorities'. I admit that there must be programs which ought to be dispensed with. There are some that have been ineffective and others where there is overlap or duplication. We will have all the details sooner or later when he does come clean. But, why cut the Skillshare programs thereby ensuring that, in the main, there will be shorter training programs for these unemployed young people, at the very difficult end of the client spectrum? Why has the federal government decided that it can get away with a shorter contact time with these people?
Mr Stirling: These are what you used to call mickey mouse courses.
Mr FINCH: No! I have been involved with Skillshare and its predecessors for 12 years. I have had 12 years hands-on experience of it. I know the value of the program. It is no secret that I am chairman of the Darwin Skillshare program. That is my level of involvement and my commitment. I do not know what yours is. You seem to want to sit over there squawking your support for this man. Only one month before he publicly castigated you, you issued a press release saying, among other things, that it was `also a solid demonstration of the ability of Senator Collins and Warren Snowdon to deliver results for the Northern Territory'. You must have nearly choked on those words!
Let us have no more of this nonsense. The federal government is scrapping meaningful programs in the name of reordering priorities. What we need to hear from members opposite, because Warren Snowdon will not confess it, is what justification there is for changing that program and adversely affecting Territorians, in particular Territorians in the bush. Certainly, we will learn a great deal more about that in the next week or so. In the meantime, I ask
Page 557
members opposite not only to reflect on the good news that was in the last Territory budget, but to open their ears to what Territorians will receive in terms of improvements to education because further improvements for education will be introduced in the budget that is to be brought down this morning.
Page 558
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016