Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Member for Katherine Jo Hersey says she was asking questions about the safety of staff and students in schools when the Education Minister “went off her tree” in estimates

Transcript

Member for Katherine Jo Hersey says she was asking questions about the safety of staff and students in schools when the Education Minister “went off her tree” in estimates · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Joining me on the line is the opposition's spokesperson for education.
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: She's also the member for Catherine Joe Hersey. Good morning
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: to you, Joe.
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: Good morning Katie, and good morning listeners. Are very busy day, Katie.
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely, and Joe. We'll get to the education stuff
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  Speaker 1: from yesterday in just a moment. But this morning I've
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: been keeping an eye on budget estimates and I see
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: that the opposition leader Leofanocchiro has attempted on several occasions
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: to ask the Police Minister, Kate Warden, who's in the
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  Speaker 1: hot seat this morning, just how much the police commissioner,
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  Speaker 1: the former police Commissioner Jamie Chalker, was paid out. And
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  Speaker 1: it seems that it's been very difficult to get a
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  Speaker 1: response to that answer.
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  Speaker 3: Well, question correct, Katie.
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  Speaker 2: It's just been appalling. The Police Minister did not give
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  Speaker 2: an opening statement, which is this is a time, Katie,
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  Speaker 2: when the Police Minister can tell towards territory in about
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  Speaker 2: the positive things that are happening in police. The fact
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  Speaker 2: that the chair shut down the very first question, now,
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  Speaker 2: let's what.
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  Speaker 3: Was the reason for that?
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  Speaker 1: What did he say, Joe, what was the reason for that?
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  Speaker 1: What did he say? Because a lot of our listeners
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  Speaker 1: won't have been watching. They're going to be hearing this
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  Speaker 1: for the first time. So I'm assuming that Lee has
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  Speaker 1: attempted to ask a question about how much is paid
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  Speaker 1: out and Brent Potter, the chair, has shut that question down.
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  Speaker 2: Well, it wasn't in the reporting period, and he kept
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  Speaker 2: on going back to say that he was very strictly
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  Speaker 2: keeping to the period that we were asking questions on
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  Speaker 2: up until the March thirty. But it's quite astonishing really that,
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  Speaker 2: you know, we are given latitude sometimes to ask questions,
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  Speaker 2: and that's what the whole of a budget estimate is about.
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  Speaker 2: It's not unusual, you know, for the government to give
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  Speaker 2: latitude in asking questions that pertain to him, you know,
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  Speaker 2: what is important to territorient Joe.
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  Speaker 1: I've just got my hands on a bit of that audio,
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  Speaker 1: so we're are just going to play a little bit
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  Speaker 1: of that for our listeners right now.
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  Speaker 4: Take a listen, Police minister, do you know how much
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  Speaker 4: Jamie Chilker was paid out? No, And so if you
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  Speaker 4: don't know how much he was paid out, you have
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  Speaker 4: no idea how it's impacted your budget's bottom line.
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  Speaker 2: Is that correct?
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  Speaker 5: That's incorrect? On this particular matter. There were several elements
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  Speaker 5: of the negotiation and the payout that I'm not that
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  Speaker 5: was a confidential payout, so I'm not going to discuss
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  Speaker 5: that any further.
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  Speaker 4: But we were told yesterday by the Treasurer that the
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  Speaker 4: entire payout came from the police bottom line. So that means,
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  Speaker 4: as Minister, you must know what hit your department has
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  Speaker 4: taken to pay for that payout.
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  Speaker 5: So the Commissioner's numeration does fall under our budget, as
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  Speaker 5: does any CES renumeration within their department budgets, and it
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  Speaker 5: would be totally inappropriate to no line by line around
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  Speaker 5: any separations from any agency. So no, I don't know
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  Speaker 5: the exact figure.
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  Speaker 4: So you just have a global separations budget with no oversight.
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  Speaker 5: I think I've answered the question, Joe.
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  Speaker 3: Do you think we're ever going to get an answer
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  Speaker 3: to that question?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, quite extraordinary from the Police Minister. Katie, the Opposition
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  Speaker 2: leader was not asking. You know, obviously the Police Minister
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  Speaker 2: was saying it's confidential, and then when further questions were asked,
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  Speaker 2: she still couldn't answer that. And just you know, it
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  Speaker 2: has to have make a difference to the bottom line, Katie,
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  Speaker 2: and that is to you know, the operational and the
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  Speaker 2: hard working police out there. Something has to give when
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  Speaker 2: you were taking a considerable which what we are assuming
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  Speaker 2: is a considerable amount to pay out Jamie.
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  Speaker 1: Chalker, Joe, let's move along to what unfolded yesterday, and
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  Speaker 1: we know that things got pretty heated when you'd asked
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  Speaker 1: some questions about the impact that crime was having on education.
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  Speaker 1: Now what exactly were you trying to get to the
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  Speaker 1: bottom off.
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  Speaker 2: Well, the fact is, Katie, we want teachers, staff, support staff, students.
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  Speaker 2: They all need to be safe in a school environment.
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  Speaker 2: And there's already been eight incidents this year alone with
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  Speaker 2: an edge weapon. Twenty eight teachers have been injured this
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  Speaker 2: year and twenty five in the previous year. So what
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  Speaker 2: I'm trying to ask the Education Minister was about safety
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  Speaker 2: four people in a school environment, and she just went
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  Speaker 2: off her tree. Basically, it was very unparliamentary. She called
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  Speaker 2: me pathetic, which was just out of line, and you know,
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  Speaker 2: quite appalling that the Education Minister. You know, it's up
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  Speaker 2: for me to ask the questions. She's there to answer them,
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  Speaker 2: not sling mud at me for standing up for territory
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  Speaker 2: in and in fact education. I talk to a lot
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  Speaker 2: of people in education, teaches students right across the territory
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  Speaker 2: when I'm traveling, and that you know, even the Education
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  Speaker 2: Union was in support of the line of questioning yesterday.
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  Speaker 2: So I've had a lot of support in the line
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  Speaker 2: of questioning that I had because the first and foremost
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  Speaker 2: it's about people being safe in a school environment. If
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  Speaker 2: people can't be safe in a school environment, you know,
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  Speaker 2: that's what I wanted the education ministers to be over.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, and I mean, at the end of the day, unfortunately,
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  Speaker 1: crime is at the forefront for absolutely everybody. You know,
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  Speaker 1: we don't want to be talking about it in the
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  Speaker 1: way that we are, but we don't want to be
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  Speaker 1: feeling unsafe in the way that we are. And that's
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  Speaker 1: really at the heart of why those questions are being asked.
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  Speaker 1: I would understand and assume based on the conversations that
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  Speaker 1: you have with people.
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  Speaker 3: In your electorate and other electorates.
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  Speaker 1: Joe, So that INFOSO eight incidents for edged weapons this
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  Speaker 1: year alone to April, as well as twenty eight teachers
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  Speaker 1: injured this year twenty five the previous year. Was that
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  Speaker 1: information that you did actually glean from yesterday?
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  Speaker 2: No, we I already knew that you know, going in
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  Speaker 2: and the the the education minister. Yeah we did, we
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  Speaker 2: did find that out, but but you know, it's just
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  Speaker 2: the fact that we brought this information to highlight the
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  Speaker 2: fact that, you know, safety was important in a school environment,
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  Speaker 2: and as you say, crime is on the forefront of
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  Speaker 2: everyone's minds across the territory. So I don't know why
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  Speaker 2: she was surprised. And then you know, to me, Katie,
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  Speaker 2: it just says everything you need to know about this government.
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  Speaker 2: When they get our important questions, they'll shut you down,
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  Speaker 2: so hurling insults, she called me pathetics, and then we
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  Speaker 2: had the chair actually shut down the meeting for a
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  Speaker 2: few minutes so you know the minister could get herself
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  Speaker 2: together and want to carry on.
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  Speaker 3: It was extraordinary.
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  Speaker 1: Look in the times that I've been watching estimates, which
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  Speaker 1: is certainly over the last ten to fifteen years, not
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  Speaker 1: I can't recall something.
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  Speaker 3: Like that happening to that degree.
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  Speaker 1: I thought it was pretty extraordinary scenes what we'd seen,
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  Speaker 1: But it was also I thought, you know, out of
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  Speaker 1: character from what I would expect from the Education Minister,
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  Speaker 1: who usually does keep pretty level headed. Joe, I guess
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  Speaker 1: from to play devil's advocate here, you know, she is
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  Speaker 1: suggesting that you should have been asking more questions about
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  Speaker 1: the education portfolio.
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  Speaker 3: Rather than crime.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, I'm assuming that you did ask plenty of
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  Speaker 1: other questions about education as well.
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely, Katie, we asked, you know, lots of things about education.
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  Speaker 2: About attendance. You know, we have the lowest attend that's
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  Speaker 2: in the country. Not one of our regions is up
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  Speaker 2: to the benchmark of the national average, which is just appalling.
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  Speaker 2: So you know, in actual fact, you know, in the
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  Speaker 2: region of the Barkley, you know, their attendance rate was
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  Speaker 2: extremely low. So there's been an education strategy, an engagement strategy,
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  Speaker 2: which has cost ten million dollars, and this is to
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  Speaker 2: engage students to get to school. And when we still
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  Speaker 2: cannot come up to the national average, that's just appalling
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  Speaker 2: to know. You know, ten million dollars has been sent
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  Speaker 2: a spense and we can't we can't even get engagement.
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  Speaker 1: Well, we've got I mean, fundamentally, we have to get
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  Speaker 1: it right. We've got to get it right when it
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  Speaker 1: comes to education. We've got to make sure that kids
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  Speaker 1: are attending school. Was there any information gleaned with respect
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  Speaker 1: to kids not attending school who are committing crimes because
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  Speaker 1: you've experienced that in Catherine recently.
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  Speaker 2: We have. And when I asked the minister that, she
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  Speaker 2: said if those crimes happen outside the school, that is
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  Speaker 2: a police matter. She didn't. She just shut that down.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, Joe, was there any update on the school counselors yesterday,
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  Speaker 1: because that's been a real point of contention for a
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  Speaker 1: lot of our listeners and a lot of you know,
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  Speaker 1: we've spoken to two nt cogso and also to students
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  Speaker 1: who are really concerned about changes to the way in
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  Speaker 1: which those counselors are going to be operating.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, Katie, So the minister said there was some misunderstanding
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  Speaker 2: that wasn't actually going to happen where they are all
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  Speaker 2: going to go to the Mitchell Street Center. Yet we
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  Speaker 2: know that more than five hundred students signed a petition
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  Speaker 2: launched by Catherina Senior College against this new model, and
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  Speaker 2: the Treasurer didn't even respect that response that they've had.
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  Speaker 2: All counselors are a vital part in a school environment,
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  Speaker 2: and the fact that they if you don't have a
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  Speaker 2: counselor in your school, you are not going to be
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  Speaker 2: bringing up someone to then have those that counselor talked
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  Speaker 2: to you over the phone or make an appointment to
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  Speaker 2: see them. They need to be building relationships in schools
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  Speaker 2: with students and so the minister. So maybe there was
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  Speaker 2: a you know, miscommunication there, but I had it on
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  Speaker 2: very good authority from you know, cog So. I spoke
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  Speaker 2: to them about the school counselors and that was the
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  Speaker 2: information that they had given me, as well as other
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  Speaker 2: school council members that I speak to. So maybe that
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  Speaker 2: was a backslip on the government.
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  Speaker 1: Y Look, we've been given the same mail as well.
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  Speaker 1: We've been we've been told the same thing here at
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  Speaker 1: the radio station as well. We'd had both Cogso and
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  Speaker 1: indeed the school on to talk about that.
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  Speaker 3: So it was a very real concern from them.
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  Speaker 1: Whether that was perceived or reality, it was absolute concern
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  Speaker 1: for them. But also I think we've got a bit
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  Speaker 1: of a situation right across the territory where it doesn't
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  Speaker 1: seem that we've got enough of those school counselors.
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  Speaker 2: Joe no correct, and there is a big drive they
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  Speaker 2: said that the minister said to get more school counselors.
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  Speaker 2: So you know, we just hope that that actually does happen.
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  Speaker 2: Because all schools need to have a school counselor in them.
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  Speaker 1: Joe, and we are fast running out of time. We
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  Speaker 1: are going to have to wrap up. I'm sure that
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  Speaker 1: you're keen to get back and keep an eye on
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  Speaker 1: what's going on during budget estimates.
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  Speaker 3: We'll try our best to make sure that we do
• 11:39
  Speaker 3: during the ad breaks as well. Thank you so much
• 11:42
  Speaker 3: for your time this morning.
• 11:44
  Speaker 2: So worries Katie. Thank you, and thank you Listen.
• 11:46
  Speaker 3: Thank you,