Dr LIM - 1996-10-15
In an adjournment debate last week, the member for Fannie Bay accused the minister of interfering in relation to the minor new works program at Parap Primary School. Has this allegation any factual basis?
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, of course it has not, but that is absolutely nothing unusual. The member for Fannie Bay has had since last Thursday to produce the goods, as she was challenged to do. Mr Speaker, you would be correct to pull me up if I suggested that the member for Fannie Bay had deliberately misled the House in any way, but the challenge has been issued to her. She made some extremely precise comments and she needs to come good with evidence that, as minister, I have interfered over the minor new works program for Parap Primary School or any other school and that I have issued instruction to Parap school about its numbers at all. She sits there silently because she knows she has been caught out yet again.
Members interjecting.
Mr FINCH: She has priors. Indeed, we will have to start eliminating her priors after 6 months because the list will run to 6 volumes otherwise.
I thank the member for Millner for his question. The school in close proximity to the residence of the member for Fannie Bay - that is, Ludmilla Primary School - is in his electorate. I know that, unlike the member for Fannie Bay, he takes some interest in Ludmilla Primary School. However, many of the member for Fannie Bay's constituents send their children to that excellent school. For the member for Fannie Bay to single out one school, which happens to be the school that she opts to send her kids to, and describe it as `the best in the Northern Territory', not just `among the best' ...
Ms Martin: One of.
Mr FINCH: No. Not `one of'. Let me quote the honourable member's words back to her. Speaking of the school, she said the minister `is punishing it for being the best'. She described the school as `the most successful'. These are her words, not mine.
The member for Millner has been in this House only a year or so himself, but he is smart enough to know that you do not pit one school against another and you do not promote one school over another simply because your own kids happen to attend it. The member for Fannie Bay sends her kids to a school 3 km from her own home which is within 200 m of Ludmilla Primary, a great school that has one of the best principals and some of the best teachers in the Northern Territory. I am ashamed about all of this. Let me ask the member for Fannie Bay this question ...
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Ms Martin: Call me a champagne socialist again. Come on!
Mr FINCH: I did refer to the member for Fannie Bay as a champagne socialist. That is true. This is elitism at its worst. It is not real smart for a local politician to be promoting one school over another.
Members interjecting.
Mr SPEAKER: Order! The minister will resume his seat for a moment. There is far too much interjection. It is not so much interjection as a monologue from a range of individuals on the opposition benches. I ask them to cease. The honourable minister.
Mr FINCH: Mr Speaker, I take the member for Fannie Bay to the comments made on Fred McCue's radio show the other morning by her buddy, her fellow Parap Primary School parent and ex-Parap Primary School council member. I found those comments very disturbing. They related to some racist questions that the AEU was running nationally. In response to Fred McCue, the president of the Territory branch of the AEU reflected adversely about Ludmilla Primary School. It was bad enough that, on the previous evening, the member for Fannie Bay had bagged one school as against another. On radio, the president of the AEU gave his explanation for the lower numbers at Ludmilla Primary School. He put it down to what can be described only as a racist interpretation. Does the member for Fannie Bay share the view of the president of the AEU that Ludmilla Primary School is a small school because of racism? Does she share that view?
Ms Martin: It makes no sense.
Mr Bailey: It makes no sense.
Mr FINCH: What do you mean, it makes no sense?
Let me very quickly give his last couple of comments.
Ms Martin: You are a sham as Minister for Education and Training.
Mr FINCH: Hear this out:
Reporter: Are you suggesting, Chris Sharpe, that white children are not going to Ludmilla Primary School
because, by and large, the children are from Bagot Community, the Aboriginal children from Bagot
Community, are going there?
Sharpe: Absolutely no, no way would I suggest such a thing. What I am saying is that the enrolment has
declined dramatically over a relatively short period of time. I think there are people certainly at the school
that are much better qualified to answer that.
Reporter: It sounds as though you have some sneaking suspicions in that area though?
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Sharpe: Well the fact, or at least the figures, do tell a bit of a story, I must say.
This is the spokesman for members of the teachers union. Instead of discarding absolutely any such insinuation, he aided and abetted it. Does the member for Fannie Bay agree with her buddy from the Parap Primary School Council? As a member of the Parap School Council, has she been delegated to bring these matters forward? She is suggesting that the provision of some shade on the edge of the covered area at Parap Primary School has a higher priority than anything for any other school in the Territory - a higher priority than the Moil Primary School water bubblers, a higher priority than the Alekarenge School or Alpurrurulam preschool toilet blocks, a higher priority than all of the other projects that officers of the department have put ahead of this.
The suggestions made by the member for Fannie Bay about student numbers at the school are a matter for decision by the school. It has capacity for 550 students. The fact that it has 530 means that it will need to contain the numbers in general. That is the end of it. Or would she have it that all the other schools in the Northern Territory should drain out and their students attend her special, you-beaut, best school in the whole of the Northern Territory at Parap? She may think this is doing her some good with the Parap parents, but it is not doing her much good with parents of students at any other schools.
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ANSWER
Mr Speaker, of course it has not, but that is absolutely nothing unusual. The member for Fannie Bay has had since last Thursday to produce the goods, as she was challenged to do. Mr Speaker, you would be correct to pull me up if I suggested that the member for Fannie Bay had deliberately misled the House in any way, but the challenge has been issued to her. She made some extremely precise comments and she needs to come good with evidence that, as minister, I have interfered over the minor new works program for Parap Primary School or any other school and that I have issued instruction to Parap school about its numbers at all. She sits there silently because she knows she has been caught out yet again.
Members interjecting.
Mr FINCH: She has priors. Indeed, we will have to start eliminating her priors after 6 months because the list will run to 6 volumes otherwise.
I thank the member for Millner for his question. The school in close proximity to the residence of the member for Fannie Bay - that is, Ludmilla Primary School - is in his electorate. I know that, unlike the member for Fannie Bay, he takes some interest in Ludmilla Primary School. However, many of the member for Fannie Bay's constituents send their children to that excellent school. For the member for Fannie Bay to single out one school, which happens to be the school that she opts to send her kids to, and describe it as `the best in the Northern Territory', not just `among the best' ...
Ms Martin: One of.
Mr FINCH: No. Not `one of'. Let me quote the honourable member's words back to her. Speaking of the school, she said the minister `is punishing it for being the best'. She described the school as `the most successful'. These are her words, not mine.
The member for Millner has been in this House only a year or so himself, but he is smart enough to know that you do not pit one school against another and you do not promote one school over another simply because your own kids happen to attend it. The member for Fannie Bay sends her kids to a school 3 km from her own home which is within 200 m of Ludmilla Primary, a great school that has one of the best principals and some of the best teachers in the Northern Territory. I am ashamed about all of this. Let me ask the member for Fannie Bay this question ...
Page 1685
Ms Martin: Call me a champagne socialist again. Come on!
Mr FINCH: I did refer to the member for Fannie Bay as a champagne socialist. That is true. This is elitism at its worst. It is not real smart for a local politician to be promoting one school over another.
Members interjecting.
Mr SPEAKER: Order! The minister will resume his seat for a moment. There is far too much interjection. It is not so much interjection as a monologue from a range of individuals on the opposition benches. I ask them to cease. The honourable minister.
Mr FINCH: Mr Speaker, I take the member for Fannie Bay to the comments made on Fred McCue's radio show the other morning by her buddy, her fellow Parap Primary School parent and ex-Parap Primary School council member. I found those comments very disturbing. They related to some racist questions that the AEU was running nationally. In response to Fred McCue, the president of the Territory branch of the AEU reflected adversely about Ludmilla Primary School. It was bad enough that, on the previous evening, the member for Fannie Bay had bagged one school as against another. On radio, the president of the AEU gave his explanation for the lower numbers at Ludmilla Primary School. He put it down to what can be described only as a racist interpretation. Does the member for Fannie Bay share the view of the president of the AEU that Ludmilla Primary School is a small school because of racism? Does she share that view?
Ms Martin: It makes no sense.
Mr Bailey: It makes no sense.
Mr FINCH: What do you mean, it makes no sense?
Let me very quickly give his last couple of comments.
Ms Martin: You are a sham as Minister for Education and Training.
Mr FINCH: Hear this out:
Reporter: Are you suggesting, Chris Sharpe, that white children are not going to Ludmilla Primary School
because, by and large, the children are from Bagot Community, the Aboriginal children from Bagot
Community, are going there?
Sharpe: Absolutely no, no way would I suggest such a thing. What I am saying is that the enrolment has
declined dramatically over a relatively short period of time. I think there are people certainly at the school
that are much better qualified to answer that.
Reporter: It sounds as though you have some sneaking suspicions in that area though?
Page 1686
Sharpe: Well the fact, or at least the figures, do tell a bit of a story, I must say.
This is the spokesman for members of the teachers union. Instead of discarding absolutely any such insinuation, he aided and abetted it. Does the member for Fannie Bay agree with her buddy from the Parap Primary School Council? As a member of the Parap School Council, has she been delegated to bring these matters forward? She is suggesting that the provision of some shade on the edge of the covered area at Parap Primary School has a higher priority than anything for any other school in the Territory - a higher priority than the Moil Primary School water bubblers, a higher priority than the Alekarenge School or Alpurrurulam preschool toilet blocks, a higher priority than all of the other projects that officers of the department have put ahead of this.
The suggestions made by the member for Fannie Bay about student numbers at the school are a matter for decision by the school. It has capacity for 550 students. The fact that it has 530 means that it will need to contain the numbers in general. That is the end of it. Or would she have it that all the other schools in the Northern Territory should drain out and their students attend her special, you-beaut, best school in the whole of the Northern Territory at Parap? She may think this is doing her some good with the Parap parents, but it is not doing her much good with parents of students at any other schools.
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Last updated: 09 Aug 2016