House of Assembly Fifty-Fifth Parliament Parliament, First Session (55-1) 55 1 Parliament of South Australia House of Assembly published Question Time Public School Fees Public School Fees The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER House of Assembly Morialta Public School Fees The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER (Morialta) (14:19): My question is to the Minister for Education. Who in the minister's office was responsible for the dissemination of the letter provided to public education families, in particular to education directors across the state and in the Department for Education? With your leave, and that of the house, sir, I would like to explain. Leave granted. The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER House of Assembly The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: The opposition has been informed that the letter in question was sent to principals across South Australia early last week by education directors who requested that they send it on to their local communities. The Hon. B.I. BOYER House of Assembly Wright Minister for Education The Hon. B.I. BOYER (Wright—Minister for Education, Training and Skills) (14:19): I thank the member for Morialta again for the question. As I said in my answer to the member's first question, I am happy to get some more information and come back, but my understanding in terms of who disseminated the letter is that that was done by the education department. My understanding is that it would have been the education department who disseminated it to education directors to make sure that it got to schools. The reason it was so important for us to do that quickly was that we were up against a bit of a time line here to make sure that we got it out in time for this coming financial year, to make sure that those families who were eligible for the $100 off for the materials and services charge for each child knew what action they needed to take in order to, first of all, claim it if they hadn't paid their school fees yet, and, in those cases where they may have already paid their materials and services charge, what they could do to get that refunded or, in some cases, as I understand, if it is possible for them to work with the school in question to have that $100 discounted off other things that aren't covered by the materials and services charge, which could in some cases be school camps or excursions.