AUSTRALIAN
COUNCIL
FOR THE DEFENCE OF GOVERNMENT
SCHOOLS - D.O.G.S.
PRESS RELEASE 281#.
22 JANUARY
2009
JULIA GILLARD:
IRRESPONSIBLE MINISTER OF THE CROWN
PRIVATE SCHOOL INTERESTS
PROTECTED BY STATUTE
WHILE PUBLIC SCHOOLS LEFT
IN ABEYANCE
The following are the contents of a letter sent to Julia Gillard
as Federal Minister for Education on 22 January 2009. Any
citizen or taxpayer interested in the fundamentals of our
democracy, namely Ministerial responsibility and accountability
for the expenditure of public money - leaving aside
Julia's own rhetoric about transparency and accountability
can only be shocked at the effect of the private school
interests on these basic tenets.
The Hon. Julia Gillard, MP
Minister for Education,
P.O. Box 6022
House of Representatives
Parliament House,
Canberra ACT 2600
Dear Minister,
Introduction
We are writing this letter requesting basic information about
the federal funding of public education in Australia. We believe
that, if you had been performing your ministerial
responsibilities, this would have been readily available to us
We should have received this information in the form of an Act
at the same time as the Schools Assistance Bill 2008
was passed in early December. We have been struggling to obtain
this information from the office of our local Senator, Gavin
Marshall, More than any other senator this parliamentarian
and/or his workers, should have been able to obtain this basic
information for us. Senator Marshall is the Chair of the Senate
Standing Committee on Education, Employment and Workplace
Relations.
We are not complaining in any way about Senator Gavin Marshall
and/or the workers in his office. They have been very obliging.
Unfortunately we are still unable to obtain the fundamental and
relevant information. This is the case, in spite of the fact
that public school children are due to return to school within
the month.
We note the fact that during 2008 you have proved yourself
fearful of using the historical concept and collocation of
words: 'public education". But we assume that you do recognise
the reality that the vast majority of children going back
to school in coming weeks will be enrolled in public schools,
and millions of dollars of federal funds, for which you are held
accountable as Minister will be needed if these schools are to
open their doors.
Appalling Information Obtained through Senator
Marshall's Office
DOGS have obtained the following information through Senator
Marshall's office:
-
Australian government funding for
government school will, from 2009, be funded through the
Intergovernmental Agreement (IgA), mentioned in the memo (
please note that this memo is not available for taxpayer's
eyes) This hasn't yet been finalised. The IgA also includes
funding for health, vocational education and training,
disability services, housing and early children. Until the
IgA is finalised, information about the IgA is available on
the COAG website.
-
Australian government funding for
non-government schools is provided through the Schools
Assistance Act 2008...
-
Until 2009 the majority of Australian
government funding ( specific purpose payments) for
government and non-government schools had the same basic
structure and was provided on a four-yearly basis through
the same legislation
-
From 2009 separate Australian Government
funding arrangements exist for government and non-government
schools
-
Funding arrangements for non-government
schools continue on a similar basis as before. The
Schools Assistance Act 2008 will provide funding for
non-government schools from 2009 to 2012.
-
As a result of changes to Australian
Government specific purpose payments to the states, from
2009 funding for government schools will be provided through
the Intergovernmental Agreement (IgA) which will
include as schedules, the National Education Agreement (
which will provide most of the funding for schools ) and
three National Partnerships targeting low socio-economic
communities, literacy and numeracy, and improving the
quality of teachers and school leadership
-
The text of the IgA is not yet available.
Do you, as Minister for Education claim that any of the above
information is untrue?
If it is true, and we have no reason to believe otherwise, we,
as citizens and taxpayers are appalled at what it signifies:
Appalling lack of Ministerial Responsibility and
Contempt for the Parents, Citizens and Children Associated with
Public Education together with Preferential Treatment of
Sectarian Education
At this stage we have been unable to obtain any information as
to any Act or Bill in relation to the federal funding of public
education.
Private sectarian schools on the other hand have an Act passed
before Parliament rose in 2008 for their funding for four years
from 2009-2012. They demanded certainty of funding along the
outrageously inequitable funding arrangements introduced by the
Howard Government and continued by the Rudd administration.
We note that this is the first time since the early 1970s that
the funding for private sectarian schools has been separated out
from that for public schools. We also note that since the
introduction of the Needs policy in 1973 the funding information
for individual schools was never as clear as it was under the
Liberal Government in the period 1969-1972.
We further note that this procedure of splitting the federal
funding of church school funding from that for public
school funding fulfils at least a thirty year aim of the Roman
Catholic sectarian interest to reduce debate about preferential
treatment accorded private church interests.
DOGS are informed that COAG is caught up in the IgA which is not
yet finalised. We object very strongly to the involvement of
COAG in the welfare and funding of public education. We believe
that COAG is synonymous with coagulation and strangulation of
the public interest. The Secretariat is mainly manned by private
school sympathisers and their language is full of the
privatisation rhetoric. The current economic and
educational crisis is the result of the untrammelled and
unregulated greed of private interests, religious and otherwise.
It should now be laid firmly at the door of politicians like
yourself who have refused to take responsibility for the
provision of a high quality, publicly funded, public education
system. You have associated yourself with private banks like UBS
and recipients of their support like Joel Klein.
Request of Citizens who Believe in No Taxation without
Representation:
As citizens who believe that Ministerial responsibility,
accountability and transparency means that you provide us with
basic information, we demand the following in relation to
Australian Government funding of public (government) schools :
-
The name of the Bill/Act that deals with
funding of public ( government) schools
-
The Section or Sections and Schedule or
Schedules in the Act/Bill that deals with the public funding
of public (government) schools when and if it is passed
-
The documents that support the Act/Bill
for example the Intergovernmental Agreement
-
The date of any debate on the above
Bill/Act in Parliament.
Evidence of Preferential Treatment of Private
Sectarian Schools and Contempt for the Majority of Children in
Public Schools
In conclusion, DOGS note that the information we have to date
indicates that the Rudd Government has not only continued the
Howard Government's grossly preferential treatment of sectarian
schools, but now gives preferential treatment to the passing of
legislation guaranteed to lock that treatment into place (
2009-2012) in the coming depression. There is no evidence of any
enacted legislative certainty of Australian taxpayer funding for
children with no choice except a free, secular and universal
public education system.
The above information indicates that basic information about the
federal expenditure on public education will be buried in the
middle of expenditure on health and other public services. It
will be hidden from proper comparison with billions of dollars
of public expenditure on sectarian educational institutions?
Does responsibility, accountability and transparency exist only
for parents, and schools in the public sector but not for
political representatives like yourself?
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