DOGS call upon Julia Gillard as Federal Minister for Education, to dissociate herself from discussion with private banks about public education.

In particular they call upon the Minister to dissociate herself from banks like United Bank of Switzerland which according to the BBC and international media has toxic assets worth $90 billion Australian dollars or $60 billion US dollars. The UBS has also been under scrutiny from the U.S. Internal Revenue Service . According to a statement made to a US court, UBS bankers used a variety of ruses to court American clients and help them dodge their taxes. According to the Sydney Morning Herald report on 21 June 2008, the court documents read like a how-to of high-end tax evasion.

Yet DOGS note that in a Media Release dated 5 October 2008, our Federal Minister for Education has associated herself with the UBS. She proudly proclaimed that

UBS, a leading financial firm, has generously offered to sponsor Mr Klein's visit and I welcome the active involvement of UBS in promoting the importance of Education.

Neither the Minister nor our public schools should be a beneficiary or in any way associated with the largesse of such an organisation.

Julia Gillard has also been promoting funding subsidies from the National Australia Bank for public education. Could she practice transparency and accountability and inform taxpayers whether NAB has toxic assets and if so, what they amount to?

Public Education which is genuinely free, secular and universal is one of the most prized assets of our Australian democracy. Taxpayers pay for it and expect a quality product and proper accountability from their political representatives  for the expenditure of those taxes. The basis of democracy is no taxation without proper representation - and accountability.

 The market ideology of the New Right privateers does not fit with the concept of public education. They have made a mess of the Western economies. Let them stay with the private school sector and keep their toxic assets to that sector.

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