Schools, Specialist Support

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER (Morialta—Deputy Leader of the Opposition) (15:00): My question is to the Minister for Education. When was the minister first advised about the accuracy or otherwise of the comments made by the Assistant Minister to the Premier in the Legislative Council? With leave, sir, I would like to explain.

Leave granted.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: Yesterday, the assistant minister apologised to the council for providing inaccurate information on 8 September in question time, which was contradicted by the Department for Education's chief executive earlier this month.

The Hon. B.I. BOYER (Wright—Minister for Education, Training and Skills) (15:01): I thank the member for Morialta for this question. I understand that the Hon. Emily Bourke in the other place made a personal explanation about this issue yesterday. I understand the advice to which Ms Bourke referred in her personal explanation yesterday, in terms of where she receives her advice about these things, is, as you would expect, from the Department for Education, which is the agency which is leading the work on the initiative we are talking about here, which is the 100 extra FTE mental health and learning support positions, which this government committed to back in October last year, when we were in opposition, and which we have already made some real progress in delivering as well.

Really, I think the member for Morialta's question—I understand some questions might have been asked in the other place today on this same topic—is a question for Ms Bourke. I think she largely covered this area in the personal explanation that she gave yesterday afternoon.