Mr AQUILINA (Riverstone - Minister for Education and Training) [3.32 p.m.] I move:

That this House recognises 1999 Education Week, the substantial contribution of dedicated teachers and staff in New South Wales schools and the outstanding progress being made by students.

As this motion indicates, this week is Education Week. Education Week is an opportunity for the people of New South Wales to see for themselves the great things that are going on in schools throughout our State. This week is a time to celebrate the great achievements of education and to acknowledge the valuable contribution of our teachers and our students. It is a week in which to acknowledge and congratulate the hard work and dedication of teachers who creatively and diligently educate, mentor and challenge in the classroom and beyond. These teachers are indeed the backbone of public education in this State. It is right and fitting that this House should pay tribute to their tireless efforts. Their work is building the future of our children.

As Minister for Education and Training I am proud of what is being achieved in public schools throughout this State. When I speak to parents they tell me that they want our schools to develop and equip their children for life - to equip them with competent literacy, numeracy, academic and vocational skills and to help them develop the social and behavioural skills that they need for their journey into adulthood. That is what I, as Minister, want for our children as well. The theme for Education Week in 1999 is "Learning for All". That captures the Government’s commitment to education - to equip each and every student in New South Wales for life. The Carr Government has always seen education as an investment and not as a cost. It is an investment in people; it is an investment in the future; it is an investment that is paying dividends already.

Page 393

Education Week demonstrates that public schools in New South Wales are delivering learning for all. Today I will give honourable members a taste of the human face of achievement in public education. The human face is best reflected by the myriad stories that I hear every day. Take, for example, the Government’s commitment to literacy. A little girl I know called Jodie, at primary school in Kooringal near Wagga Wagga, can now read and write because of Reading Recovery. Jodie’s mother told me that the Government’s Reading Recovery program in public schools:

. . . gave Jodie the confidence that she originally lacked. Jodie now enjoys reading and no longer finds it difficult, due I’m sure to this great reading program.

I am delighted that the honourable member for Wagga Wagga is nodding his head in agreement. When Mariam from Punchbowl in Sydney’s south started year 1, she was in the lowest reading level. After 20 weeks of Reading Recovery Mariam is now in the top reading level in her grade. Another example is Bart from Mosman. Bart’s mother told me:

Reading Recovery was just such a success from day one that both my husband and I smile from ear to ear each day noting Bart’s progress. This progress was not only in reading, but as you would be aware, in his self-confidence and general ability at school and elsewhere.

Throughout New South Wales, as Education Week will show, thousands of other children like Jodie, Mariam and Bart can now read because of the Government’s investment in education. Anyone visiting a New South Wales school this week will see demonstrated not just literacy and numeracy skills; he or she will also see improved computer and information technology skills. Greg Donaldson, a teacher at Westport Technology High School, said:

The NSW Government has shown a real commitment to the effective use of computers in schools.

That is because more than 90,000 computers have been provided to schools over the past four years; that is because more than 15,000 teachers, through the technology in learning and teaching - the TILT initiative - have been trained in the better use of computers in their teaching, effectively making computers the tools of teaching and learning in our State; and that is because every public school in New South Wales has been connected to the Internet. Indeed, every school in New South Wales was connected to the Internet by the end of 1996 - the first western democracy to do so. The Australian newspaper recently called the Government’s commitment:

. . . a watershed moment for Australian education. It provided a wake up call to every other state on the importance of the Internet in classrooms.

So said the Australian. Anyone visiting a local school in Education Week 1999 will see this technology being used. At Mona Vale Public School honourable members will see students and teachers using the Internet for research, assignments and email. Jan Morrison, the principal at Lake Cargelligo Central School, said that computers at her school were enabling distance education children to study subjects online.

Once again, computers in our schools have overcome the tyranny of distance and the tyranny of isolation, and they are ensuring that students, no matter how remote or isolated, are able to access the best education. They can do that through the Government’s investment in computers and upgraded technology in our schools. Jan Morrison said that she believed that the Internet was "an exciting pathway for kids that will help them set up businesses in the future". John Durrington, from Lawson Public School, said that the Government’s commitment to computers in schools had:

. . . assisted in preparing all students to be confident learners in the next millennium.

One of the highlights of Education Week is the students’ displays of creativity. I encourage parents to respond to the invitation to visit schools and to see the displays and the students’ performances. In launching Education Week on Sunday I was privileged to hear 4,500 students from across the State perform as the Sing 2001 Choir at Darling Harbour. What a spectacle that was! From Albury to Alstonville, from Bondi to Broken Hill they entertained thousands of people on Sunday afternoon with their voices, with their keenness to ensure that they showed the best of what public education in New South Wales can provide.

We will be hearing a lot more of that choir between now and the centenary of Federation in the year 2001. That massed choir is an opportunity for students from all areas of the State to join hands and demonstrate some of the unique advantages of public education in New South Wales. It is not just in music; it is also in art. Students in New South Wales public schools can demonstrate tremendous achievements. Recently I received a letter from Pennsylvania State University in the United States of America. Dr Gooding-Brown of the School of Art Education said that she was taken aback by the "extremely high standard of the artwork" and that the international art education community "all expressed enthusiasm at the obvious support given
Page 394
to visual arts education by the current government". Her comments were about the number of items exhibited at last year’s Art Express that were displayed in Washington this year for the world to see.

The Government’s commitment to skills for all in literacy, numeracy, technology and creativity is benefiting students throughout their schooling. The Government has made a major investment in developing a new, better and fairer Higher School Certificate [HSC]. The year 10 students who will be met by parents visiting schools during Education Week can look forward to a better and fairer HSC. This new world-class curriculum will better prepare them for future education, life and job opportunities. Larissa Treskin of the New South Wales Secondary Principals Council said:

The changes to the HSC are the best opportunity we have had for three decades to re-energise the curriculum, to engage learning of all students sitting for the HSC and to support the commitment of teachers into the next millennium.

Maralyn Parker from the Daily Telegraph commented:

The new HSC is revolutionary in several ways. It is fairer and a lot easier to understand not only for students trying to work out what is expected of them but by parents and employers too. What could be fairer or clearer than that?

Education Week is a reminder to the community of how central our schools are to our society; it serves as a reminder to protect our schools from the dangers posed by drugs, crime and violence; and it is essential to equipping our students for life. That is why the Government has taken a strong line on drugs, violence and truancy. Laurie Keating, Principal of Yass High School, agreed with the Government’s good discipline and effective learning policy. He said:

I welcome the opportunity to ensure schools are safe and happy places. Violence has no place in our schools.

People across the State are making hundreds of statements about what our public education system can offer our students. It is truly a delight and, indeed, a privilege for me to be the Minister at a time when so much good work is happening in our schools through our teachers and students in partnership with parents.

Mr O’DOHERTY (Hornsby) [3.42 p.m.]: On behalf of the Opposition I congratulate students and staff of schools throughout New South Wales on the excellent work they are doing. That excellent work happens despite the worst effects of the policies of the Minister for Education and Training. I move:

That the motion be amended by the addition of the following paragraph:

"(2) condemns the Government for its failure to provide adequately for the needs of schools and for failing to enter into negotiations regarding the salaries and status of teachers".

Teachers never tire of telling me how little confidence they have in the policies of the New South Wales Carr Government. They hear the glib rhetoric and prepared statements, such as the prepared speech just read by the Minister for Education and Training - although it was fine work prepared by his department. But those fine words do not talk about the reality of life today in schools for teachers and students in New South Wales. Those words do not talk about Manly High School. The honourable member for Manly is in the Chamber.

During the election campaign that high school was told that its problems would be solved by the Government. The Government even sent the Deputy Director-General of Education to make promises on its behalf that capital works funds would be allocated to that school, including overcoming serious problems with the school hall. The school learnt the truth after the election: the Government was going to force the school to sell off land to fund work. That deception was carried out by the department on behalf of the New South Wales Government.

The pious words of the Minister do not provide support teachers for learning difficulties. The Hornsby district, which falls into my electorate, has eight support teachers for literacy. The Government intends to take away 6.7 of those teachers in its new allocation of resources. The entire Hornsby district will be left with a little over one literacy support teacher. That is an absolute disgrace! Students with learning difficulties in high schools in my electorate will not have their problems addressed, because this Government is taking away those resources.

No doubt the Government will say that it will allocate those teachers to areas in need. Students with learning difficulties in my electorate have needs, and they deserve to have their needs met by this Government. If the Minister wants to provide additional resources to other areas he should do so, but he should also provide additional resources to children in my electorate who have learning and reading problems when they reach high school. The Minister spoke about the reading recovery program. The previous Coalition Government introduced that policy - he did not mention that.

Page 395

When the Minister took over responsibility for schools in 1995 he removed 100 teachers from some primary schools and put them in different schools. He then claimed that he had reading recovery programs in 200 schools. It was a brilliant piece of mathematics - the sort of mathematics he is famous for! The Minister’s pious words do not address the capital works record of the Carr Labor Government. Indeed, as shadow minister I watched in despair as annually $70 million was taken out of capital works funding for New South Wales schools. In 1995 the previous Coalition Government left a $200 million budget legacy for capital works.

However, the Minister went to the election with a $129 million budget. That is why Manly High School could not get its hall fixed without selling off the farm. That is why Mount Colah Public School cannot get the Government to agree to capital works planned by the previous Government. Almost every month I write to the Minister and almost every month he gets his Parliamentary Secretary to write back - he does not pay me the courtesy of replying directly - saying, "We will do that at some stage." In the never-never! The Government is saying to schools in the Hornsby district, "Don’t bother us with your problems."

The Minister’s pious words do not address the salaries and status of teachers. The Minister moved this motion today because he cannot go into New South Wales schools and talk to the teachers. Why? He has been black-banned by schools because of his Government’s failure to honour its commitment to renegotiate the salaries agreement with teachers. I am sure the Minister will remember sitting with me in the Parliamentary Theatrette listening to a debate about the election. The election forum was sponsored by the Teachers Federation and others. The question of salaries came up. The Coalition’s policy was to provide as a bare minimum, a starting point, a real-terms wage increase for teachers. We told them we would have funded increases dealing with the status of teachers. We had a series of initiatives that addressed the professional status of teachers.

I shall run briefly through a couple of them because I believe they are essential to the status of the teaching profession, which the New South Wales Government will not address. Our policy provided for teacher mentors for hard-to-staff schools. This was a special program whereby teachers with experience would go to schools that were hard to staff or had a young teaching staff. They would be given a half teaching load and a salary bonus to provide their expertise to skill teachers in those schools, typically schools in the western suburbs where it is difficult to retain experienced staff. That policy went to the heart of the professional development needs of teachers in New South Wales schools. We were going to increase by $200 per teacher, for every teacher in New South Wales, the miserly and pathetic $25 per teacher training and development allowance the Government provides.

This Government is doing nothing for the training of teachers today, let alone providing for the teachers of tomorrow. This Government is not addressing the lack of casual teachers in our schools and, indeed, the whole question of wage equity for casual teachers. It was our policy to provide wage equity for casual teachers. This Government is doing nothing about that. It was our policy to help teachers resolve the matters in which they have become the victims of vexatious complaints flowing from child protection matters dealt with by the last Parliament.

Many teachers feel that they are the victims of vexatious complaints, yet this Government refuses to listen to them or to provide some sensible arrangement whereby they can achieve natural justice in a way that does not prejudice the bringing forward of any genuine complaint. This Government is not dealing effectively with the Higher School Certificate. For many years teachers have told us that changes to the Higher School Certificate require additional time. Teachers and students are now trying to grapple with the changes that the Minister has forced on them, yet he has provided no resources for their training, no time for them to understand the full implications of the changes and, therefore, no time for them to inform students of the subjects they ought to take.

One can only imagine what kinds of bugs next year’s system will produce because the Government had to politically force through these changes! Our policy, which the Government could have picked up, provided for a 12-month extension of time to introduce changes to the HSC, but the Government chose not to. It chose to push through the changes for political reasons. The Government’s policy does not deal with behaviour in schools. Any teacher would tell the Minister that the behaviour of many students in our schools has reached the point at which it is critical for the Government to provide real resources, not just pious words, to help teachers deal with bad behaviour. Some students - a minority, but a growing minority - are creating a culture within some of our schools that makes it impossible to have good teaching and learning. Few, if any, additional resources have been provided by the Government to deal with that problem. The Government has nothing to say on the critical issues relating to behaviour and gender, behaviour and the
Page 396
drug culture, and behaviour and types of schools that are more suitable to students who do not and cannot learn by sitting down and being quiet.

In other words, flexible structures that ought to exist in the middle and senior years in particular do not exist, because the Government has a policy vacuum. Our policy for wilderness programs - eight across the State - which would have provided a much better way to deal with the problems of students in New South Wales who are most at risk, should be supported by the Government. But the Government actually cut the number of available programs. The Opposition cannot support the Carr Government’s agenda for education in New South Wales, an agenda that has left teachers fully aware that they are not supported in their claim for salaries or status by the current Government. Therefore I urge honourable members to support my amendment. However, the Opposition supports the very good and dedicated work of teachers in New South Wales schools against the odds and against the worst excesses of the Carr Government.

Ms MEGARRITY (Menai) [3.52 p.m.]: I give unqualified support to the Minister’s motion that this House recognise Education Week, the substantial contribution of dedicated teachers and staff in New South Wales schools and the outstanding progress made by students. Since my election to this House I have had the pleasure of visiting many of the schools in my area. In support of the Minister’s motion I draw the attention of honourable members to just three of the 17 schools in my electorate, but I emphasise that the examples mentioned today are just a small sample of the great things that are happening every day in each and every school throughout my electorate.

Recently I attended a mid-year award ceremony at Holsworthy High School. The awards, designed to encourage performance across the whole school year, were given to 60 students. The awards were an attempt to recognise many students, not just the top few. Holsworthy High School is a past winner of the Director-General’s Award for the Links Program. Holsworthy High School works in partnership with nearby Holsworthy Public School, Moorebank Public School and Hammondville Public School, with curriculum units expanding over year 6 and into year 7.

In the Pathfinders program teachers from nearby public schools identify year 6 children who for one reason or another may not adapt well to the high school environment. For instance, they may experience a lack of confidence or low self-esteem. These students form a class at Holsworthy High School each November. They wear the school uniform and get used to their new environment. Another excellent student welfare initiative at Holsworthy High School is year 10 students tutoring kindergarten students from nearby Holsworthy Public School in gross motor skills activities. It is apparently remarkable, to use the language of today, that some of the most cool, tough kids, often wearing baseball caps backwards, get right into the program and relate well to the kindies. The program brings out the very best in these students.

Nearby Moorebank Public School is held in high regard by the wider community. Enrolment requests for kindergarten 2000 already exceed available places, in spite of the fact that the school community has experienced many months of anxiety and uncertainty about the Commonwealth Government’s intention to sell the land on which the school is situated. After much consideration the parents and citizens association has reluctantly decided not to mount a prolonged campaign of resistance to the proposed sale and redevelopment of the site. They are concerned about the potential effect of such a campaign on the students, who are already aware of the uncertain future of their school thanks to the Howard Federal Government.

Thanks also to some unhelpful correspondence from their Liberal Federal member for Hughes, Danna Vale, to a neighbouring tenant, the parents and citizens association also acknowledges that a campaign to stop the sale of the school site would be unlikely to succeed. To ease their minds, and on their behalf, I have approached my colleague the Minister for Education and Training to request the relocation of the students, staff and existing resources of Moorebank Public School to Wattle Grove Public School, currently under construction by the Carr Government. It seems that we are building schools while the Federal Government is literally taking the land away from underneath someone else.

Alfords Point Public School in the Sutherland part of my electorate also has a fine record of educational achievements in its relatively short history. The former Coalition Government originally established Alfords Point Public School as a totally demountable annex to another school. Bright idea! Yet again it has fallen to the Carr Labor Government to find solutions to the mistakes of the former Coalition Government. In its first term the Carr Labor Government removed the annex tag and made Alfords Point Public School a school in its own right. In this term of government we will construct some permanent facilities at the school. Recently I visited Alfords Point Public School with
Page 397
the Minister when he presented the school with an award for excellence in its computer education program.

All the parents and citizens associations and school councils I have met so far as the member for Menai have taken an active interest in their respective schools, and support a variety of curricular and co-curricular activities. The one thing they all have in common is an enormous respect and admiration for the teaching staff of the schools. I echo those sentiments. The teachers I have met and whom I know personally are professionals and dedicated to the challenging task before them. Contrary to popular perceptions, they do not start work at 9.00 a.m. and finish at 3.00 p.m. A considerable amount of work goes on before and after standard school hours. The programs available and the achievements of the schools I have mentioned would not have been possible without such teachers, and indeed the teachers throughout my electorate.

Mr RICHARDSON (The Hills) [3.57 p.m.]: I am pleased to recognise Education Week, the substantial contribution of dedicated teachers and staff in New South Wales schools and the outstanding progress made by students. Last Friday the Minister for Education and Training visited my electorate for the official opening of the new Castle Hill Public School, one of the oldest schools in the north-west district, but one that has been relocated. I am sure the Minister would agree that it was one of the best openings one could have wished for. The behaviour of the children and the way in which they conducted themselves is to be commended.

The singing of I Am Australian almost brought tears to my eyes. The rendition of Elgar’s Pomp and Circumstance by the woodwind ensemble would have done credit to a group of students five or six years older than them. In every respect Castle Hill Public School is a model of the public education system. The work at the school by teachers such as Bev Moth, who conducted the school choir, and the principal, Brian Mullan, is absolutely outstanding. I also support the amendment moved by the honourable member for Hornsby condemning the Carr Government for failing to provide adequately for the needs of schools and for failing to enter into negotiations regarding the salaries and status of teachers.

Although there is much to be commended in the public education system, what is happening at Castle Hill Public School, Castle Hill High School, Cherrybrook Technology High School, Kellyville Public School and Murray Farm Public School in my electorate is happening despite the Minister. One need only talk to teachers to learn that what they feel about this Government and its attitude to their needs, salaries and status is very different from that presented by the Minister in his contribution this afternoon. I have received countless letters and postcards from teachers who are concerned and quite furious about the Government’s lack of provision in the budget for a salary increase for teachers. The Government was well aware that the current agreement was due to expire in June and yet no provision whatsoever was made in the budget for that salary increase.

Indeed, the Government has refused to enter into meaningful negotiations with the New South Wales Teachers Federation over salary and status issues. The Opposition believes that teachers do a fantastic job in the public education system and should be adequately rewarded for that effort. That is why the Opposition made a commitment before the last election for a real increase in salaries for teachers. A Coalition government would spend substantially more on capital works than the current Government is spending. That is the other element of the amendment of the honourable member for Hornsby.

Mr Aquilina: We are building you another school. We are building so many new schools in your electorate.

Mr RICHARDSON: The Minister talks about building a new school but the Federal Government contributed $3.7 million. My Federal colleague Alan Cadman officially opened the school. The State Government made a profit on moving the school from one site to another.

Mr Aquilina: Nonsense.

Mr RICHARDSON: So that is a nonsense? It would be nice to see some of that money redirected, for example, to Cherrybrook High School, which is in desperate need of permanent accommodation as it is one of the biggest high schools in the State. West Pennant Hills Public School badly needs a new assembly hall as it will celebrate its centenary next year. Since 1949 its Bristol hall has accommodated only 200 students; the school has had a totally inadequate assembly hall for 50 years. Crestview Public School in the electorate of the honourable member for Albury has 50 kids crammed into a building twice the size of the table in the House. The Government has created these sorts of problems because it has reduced the capital works program for schools from $201 million, when the Coalition was in government, to $129 million in the last financial
Page 398
year before the election. There is much to commend about the public education system, but there is much to be condemned about the Government’s handling of it.

Mr STEWART (Bankstown - Parliamentary Secretary) [4.02 p.m.]: The honourable member for The Hills stated in his contribution that he had no concerns with public education and he actually thanked the Minister and the Government for providing for his local schools. He, along with other people, is celebrating Education Week. I was quite perplexed by the second half of his speech, in which he made a half-hearted attack on the Government. However, his heart was not in it because he knows that the Government has delivered on public education. We have delivered facilities and resources to his local area, as we have done throughout New South Wales. The Government is working tirelessly under the Minister for Education and Training to deliver the goods - and that has been the success of this Government from day one.

When the Government was first elected in 1995 it had to turn around the mess created by seven years of Coalition Government. I remind the Coalition, after listening to the honourable member for Hornsby, that when we came to office in 1995 we were embarrassed that the former Coalition Government had spent less than any other State in Australia per public school student. That is a fact, and it is deplorable. The Government is now spending more per student in real terms than has been the case in the 150-year history of public education in New South Wales and it is proud of that achievement. However, it does not stop there because the Government will ensure that it continues to deliver for public education in this State.

It is a crying shame that the Federal Government has reduced funding in real terms for public education, particularly as this week we are celebrating Education Week and what education has achieved for our great State. Yesterday, as Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Education and Training, I visited Manly West Public School. I note that the honourable member for Hornsby also referred to that school. I was proud to open a newly refurbished school hall, which cost $168,000 and which had not been refurbished for 50 years. The Coalition did not attend to the needs of that school.

I want to talk about the human face of public education. At the function yesterday I met Jim Noble, who was a student when that school first opened 75 years ago. The school must have been opened by a Labor government because it was opened ahead of schedule. It took the teachers by surprise because they did not all turn up on the first day and Mr Noble boasted that he had the day off. We often hear stories about old mongrel dogs that come into schools and pinch the sandwiches. Manly West Public School had a resident emu that used to pinch the sandwiches. The deputy principal decided to chase the emu out of the school. Much to his dismay, his wig fell off and the emu picked it up and ran away.

We hear those sorts of parochial stories when we talk to people involved in public education. Jim Noble is a great part of that school. He still attends functions at that school 75 years after it opened. He talked about what the Carr Government has delivered for that school. The Manly West Public School hall was named after the Gayimai people, Aborigines who frequented that area for many thousands of years. The children have discovered in the school grounds an Aboriginal site where spears were sharpened.

The National Parks and Wildlife Service has now declared it a sacred site because of its historical significance. I support the motion moved by the Minister for Education and Training. I thank the Minister for putting his heart and soul into public education and for delivering the goods, despite the poor state of public education when we came to government in 1995. This Government has a proud record in relation to public education in this State. It is working well.

Mr AQUILINA (Riverstone - Minister for Education and Training) [4.07 p.m.], in reply: I congratulate the honourable member for Menai on her dedication to public education and, as a new member, on taking the time to visit schools, talk to teachers and see for herself the daily miracles that are happening in schools in her electorate. I congratulate also the honourable member for Bankstown, who is the Parliamentary Secretary for Education and Training. It is a delight to work with him. He is a former teacher and he knows only too well what happens in our schools. I thank him for his dedication and commitment to education. In his role as Parliamentary Secretary he has the opportunity to visit schools around the State and I thank him publicly for the representations he has made on my behalf in that role. The honourable member for Hornsby cannot get it right. As shadow minister and as the member for Ku-ring-gai he wheeled out this rhetoric on a daily basis.

It was unconvincing then and it is unconvincing now and, frankly, the reason it is unconvincing is because his rhetoric never matches the facts. People can see through that. The honourable member made the point today that when the Carr Government was elected in 1995, Reading Recovery was already a policy. It is true that the
Page 399
previous Government had discussed such a program, but it never provided the funding for it. It took the Carr Government to fund the Reading Recovery program. The Carr Government came up with the $200 million for the literacy program, which resulted in 400 literacy teachers being employed in schools through the State. That brought the total number of schools provided with Reading Recovery teachers to 759. Only last week I announced that an additional 41 teachers would join the program and that the current total of teachers involved in the program would then be 800.

The member for Hornsby has claimed that his electorate is never the recipient of any of the advances made in education. The following schools are located in the electorate of Hornsby: Cherrybrook Public School, Epping West Public School, Hornsby South Public School, John Purchase Public School, Mount Ku-ring-gai Public School, Oakhill Drive Public School, Pennant Hills Public School, Samuel Gilbert Public School, Thornleigh West Public School, Waitara Public School, and the West Pennant Hills Public School. All of those schools have been provided with Reading Recovery teachers. So much for the rhetoric of the member for Hornsby!

The member for Hornsby was a failed shadow minister in the previous Coalition Government. He has been demoted in Opposition and has had the shadow ministry taken away from him. Is that any wonder? If one examines the funding allocated to the Hornsby electorate, it will be evident that global funding for schools increased during the previous term of this Government from $1.89 million to $2.1 million. Expenditure on literacy was increased from zero to $161,000 and under the capital works program $720,000 was spent on the Hornsby Girls High School and the Asquith Public School.

In addition, 750 computers were installed in schools in the electorate of Hornsby and 131 teachers from the electorate of Hornsby were trained as part of the technology learning and teaching program at a cost of $1.4 million. Also in the electorate of Hornsby, teaching staff numbers increased from 503 to 549 and the total amount of staff salaries increased from $19.8 million to $25.1 million. All that has taken place in the electorate of Hornsby. It is no wonder that the member for Hornsby was given the boot after this year’s State election. He was given the boot because, as I said earlier, his negative rhetoric did not match the facts. It is obvious that he does not even know what is happening in his own electorate.

Let me describe the result of the honourable member’s representation of the electorate of Hornsby. The Coalition’s margin in the electorate decreased from 13.7 per cent to 2.7 per cent, which was one of the biggest swings against an Opposition member recorded in this year’s State election, despite the member being the shadow minister for education. The former shadow minister cannot hold up his head with any degree of credibility in this House and discuss the negative aspects of education. He does not know the facts in relation to the State of New South Wales or even his own electorate. If he cannot get the facts right in relation to his own electorate, can he get the facts right in relation to anything? In conclusion, I reiterate my commendation of the motion to the House and my opposition to the amendment. [Time expired.]

Question - That the amendment be agreed to - put.

The House divided.

Mr Armstrong Mr D. L. Page
Mr Barr Mr Piccoli
Mr Brogden Mr Richardson
Mr Collins Mr Rozzoli
Mr Debnam Ms Seaton
Mr George Mr Slack-Smith
Mr Glachan Mr Souris
Mr Hartcher Mr Stoner
Mr Hazzard Mr Tink
Ms Hodgkinson Mr Torbay
Dr Kernohan Mr J. H. Turner
Mr McGrane Mr R. W. Turner
Mr Maguire
Ms Moore Tellers,
Mr Oakeshott Mr Fraser
Mr O’Doherty Mr R. H. L. Smith

Mr Amery Mr Markham
Ms Andrews Mr Martin
Mr Aquilina Ms Meagher
Mr Ashton Ms Megarrity
Mr Bartlett Mr Nagle
Ms Burton Mr Newell
Mr Campbell Ms Nori
Mr Collier Mr Orkopoulos
Mr Crittenden Mr E. T. Page
Mr Debus Mr Price
Mr Face Dr Refshauge
Mr Gaudry Ms Saliba
Mr Greene Mr Scully
Mrs Grusovin Mr W. D. Smith
Ms Harrison Mr Stewart
Mr Hickey Mr Tripodi
Mr Hunter Mr Watkins
Mr Iemma Mr Whelan
Mr Knowles Mr Woods
Mrs Lo Po’ Mr Yeadon
Mr Lynch Tellers,
Mr McBride Mr Anderson
Mr McManus Mr Thompson

Page 400

Mrs Chikarovski Mrs Beamer
Mr Humpherson Mr Brown
Mr Kerr Mr Carr
Mr Merton Mr Gibson
Mr O’Farrell Mr Knight
Mrs Skinner Mr Mills
Mr Webb Mr Moss

Question resolved in the negative.

Amendment negatived.

Motion agreed to.