EDUCATION AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT

Mr PISONI (Unley) (14:59): Supplementary, if I may sir?

The SPEAKER: Yes.

Mr PISONI: The minister referred to a new restructure in her department in her answer. Why has the government restructured the education department nine times since coming to office?

The SPEAKER: That is not a supplementary. Would you like a question, leader?

Mr Marshall interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Oh, you will have that as a substitute question? Minister.

The Hon. J.J. Snelling: How many times have they changed leaders?

The Hon. J.M. RANKINE (Wright—Minister for Education and Child Development, Minister for Multicultural Affairs) (14:59): Yes, that's right.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. J.J. Snelling: How many times have you changed leaders?

The Hon. J.M. RANKINE: Exactly. I think that was six times. You might like to explain that to the South Australian people. We have made a commitment—

Mr Pisoni: You're saying six, are you? Put six on Hansard.

The SPEAKER: Minister, would you be seated.

Mr Pisoni: Put six times on Hansard.

The SPEAKER: The member for Unley is warned for the first time—and for the second time, and will go out if he utters another noise out of order. The minister.

The Hon. J.M. RANKINE: Thank you, sir. We have made the development of our children and their education, as I said, an absolute priority. We are open to new ideas. There is absolutely no doubt that, as the community changes, the demands change, the requirements change and the needs of children and their families change.

What we know is, when we inherited the education system and the child protection system, it was in crisis. We support our teachers here. We do not believe that public education is rotten to the core, as has been espoused by the shadow minister for education. We think we need to support teachers, we need to listen to families and we will do what we need to do to make sure we give children the best chance in life.