Mr FITZGIBBON —I want to support the comments of the member for Greenway (Mr Mossfield) with respect to the Save the Children Foundation. I was fortunate enough to have lunch with the foundation's patron, Barbara Holborrow, just last Thursday. They are attempting to set up a group in my electorate, and I wish them well.

I also rise today in support of the New South Wales Teachers Federation and the 17,000 government school teachers who stopped work for two hours last week in protest against the Howard government's attack on public education in this country. The Australian Labor Party is committed to a strong non-government school sector—and we do believe that parents should have a choice—but that funding should not come at the expense of government schools. But the abolition of the former Labor government's new schools policy, the introduction of the Howard government's enrolment benchmark adjustment and the common youth allowance all threaten the most important principle in public education in this country—that is, access of equity. That is the principle that all children, regardless of the means of their parents, should have access to a decent education.

The Howard government's ideologically driven approach to education in this country threatens to turn that principle on its head, and it should be condemned for it. This has particular impact in rural areas like those in my electorate where public schools rely on a critical mass, rely on a certain enrolment of children to remain viable, and this could be put at threat. (Time expired)