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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2012-04-05 Daily Xml
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LIFE SKILLS EDUCATION

The Hon. R.B. SUCH (Fisher) (11:30): I move:

That this house calls on the state government to ensure that, by the time all students complete their schooling, they have been provided with an introductory education about our legal system, personal financial management, interpersonal relationship skills and driver education.

I am not arguing that none of this happens currently. What I am arguing is that there should be more of it and that it should apply to more students—preferably all students. Some of the most important aspects of living are not, in my view, adequately dealt with through the school system currently. That applies in both the private and the public system.

Let us look at these points as separate entities. We do not expect someone by year 12 to have the status to become a senior counsel. However, when you live in a society where you are governed by laws—whether it is common law, statute law or whatever—I think it is very important that you have some understanding of the law. I am constantly amazed, when I say to young people who have threatened someone, 'That's illegal; you can't do that,' that many have no understanding in relation to basic principles of law.

When members come in here, one thing that they should be made aware of are laws relating to defamation and libel. If you are not aware of it, it can be a very expensive exercise. We have had cases involving MPs in here where the payment has been close to $200,000, for one member who made a comment that another member did not visit their schools—in other words, implying they did not do their job. That cost about $200,000. I am not saying that people need to have detailed information about libel and defamation, but people coming through our school system do not even have a basic elementary understanding of our legal system and the day-to-day laws that affect people's behaviour.

Regarding personal financial management, once again, we are not trying to churn out accountants, but people need to have some understanding of how to manage their personal finances. As with the deficiency in legal understanding and knowledge, a lack of personal financial management skills results in a lot of pain and suffering in the community. It affects family life and a whole lot of things. Many people come through the school system and they do not understand even the most elementary accounting principles: how to read a balance sheet and so on. These are important life skills which all students should have some familiarity with.

Some good work is done by groups in the community who focus on interpersonal relationship skills. Some schools engage SHine to do it, which is good, but many—probably most—students do not have any background in how to deal with relationships, understanding other people, empathy, and relationships between men and women. This motion is not a simple answer to all the problems, but we see the consequences of pain and suffering every day in our community because people lack any understanding of some of these interpersonal skills. We might focus on aspects of reproduction, but there is more to life and our interactions with others than simply understanding human plumbing. What SHine and other groups do is good in the sense of making students aware of feelings, dealing with and having respect for others and so on, but my point is that I think it needs to be expanded.

Then I come to driver education. I note that throughout the world a number of countries put a lot of emphasis on driving in their school programs. People say that it is costly. Well, anything worthwhile tends to be costly. I will use the case of Denmark. They have had mandatory driver education since 1986, and I could go through a list of countries, but I will not. However, we have to consider the number of people, particularly young people, killed on our roads.

Things have improved because of the wearing of seatbelts, although unfortunately some still choose not to, the provision of airbags, better designed cars, and improved roads, but we still have a lot of people on the road, not just young people, who do not understand basic physics: car hit tree, tree wins. You often see tailgating, and I get annoyed if I am sticking to the speed limit and there is some idiot right up my exhaust pipe who is impatient, and does not like me obeying the speed limit. People need to understand basic physics. They need to understand and see the consequences of crashes and, yet, we allow this to be a hit and miss affair, pardon the pun.

If we had a program, standards and a focus on safety that even paralleled what we do in the air by way of pilot training, and so on—even a fraction of what they do, and the focus that they have, and it is never going to be at that level—we would cut the road toll considerably. I am not arguing that our schools do not do any of these things. I am saying that I do not think we do enough of them, and I do not think we involve enough of our young people while they are at school in these particular activities.

Lifelong learning is a great thing, and we should have opportunities throughout life for people to brush up their skills in all these areas, but to me the rational, sensible approach to many of these issues is to ensure that people at school learn some of these key areas, that they are exposed to them, and become aware of the basic elements of law, how to manage their finances, how to deal with people at an interpersonal level, and how to drive safely and responsibly. If we addressed those issues more comprehensively in the school system, everyone would be better off and we would have a better society—a more caring and compassionate society—and a more enlightened one.

Debate adjourned on motion of Mr Sibbons.

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