AUSTRALIAN COUNCIL FOR THE
DEFENCE OF GOVERNMENT SCHOOLS
PRESS RELEASE 357
JULIA GILLARD AND MINISTRY
FOR SOCIAL INCLUSION:
INSTITUTIONALISED
HYPOCRISY
Julia Gillard, the Minister for Social Inclusion, talks
about ‘social inclusion’ and the elimination of unfairness at the same time as
she
.
As Minister for
Social Inclusion, Julia Gillard, launched the Australian Government’s national
statement on social inclusion, A Stronger,
Fairer
Gillard defined
Social Inclusion as ensuring no
Australian is left behind by giving all the opportunities, resources,
capabilities and responsibilities to learn, work, connect with others and have
a say in community life.
So far, so good.
Then, in a speech to the conference, Ms Gillard set herself and the Rudd
government up to fail. She said that at the start of a new decade the test of
this work is the progress they have made together by its close. She claimed
that the agenda is about embedding a
commitment to fairness in everything that the Government does. She claims
that the statement sets out a new approach to break down the barriers that
stand between the most disadvantaged Australians and participation. She admits
that, despite a strong economy in recent years, disadvantage still prevents
many Australians from getting a fair go.
Gillard also
indicated awareness of the problems caused by inequalities, and claimed that
the Government is determined to address disadvantage, which costs the entire
nation in lower productivity, chronic health problems, welfare dependence and
fractured communities. Then she made the fundamental error. The Rudd Government’s
social inclusion strategy will form partnerships between the people in
government, the not-for-profit sector and businesses that have the greatest
experience in addressing disadvantage.
The public education system
has been the mainspring of social cohesion and the fundamental lynch pin in our
democratic society to date. It has been able to do this because it has been
genuinely public in purpose, outcome, access, ownership, control,
accountability and provision. The Rudd government is continuing to undermine
this basic institution by yoking it unequally with the private religious and
business sector, and imposing a market ideology upon it. It is being treated as
the mere plaything of parental choice. This is epitomized in a website
containing limited information on literacy and numeracy designed to compare
schools and shame disadvantage.
In this fashion our
governments have reduced an enlightened education, the provision of the
accumulation of the inherited wisdom of our society and the power to learn and
think for ourselves, to a commodity and plaything of the market. It is to
credit of our public education system that its graduates and supporters can
think their away around the weasel words of Gillard and Rudd.
Gillard has not even had
the decency to place the accurate knowledge of funding figures and resources
available to the private religious institutions on her MySchool website. It is
left to public school supporters and independent investigators to reveal the
scandalous over funding of these institutions.
Meanwhile, if the Rudd
government is forming partnerships with the private religious sector which
promotes sectarian education what is the value of her platitudes about ‘social
inclusion’?
Genuine Democratic
governments should deal in realities, rather than topsy-turvy rhetoric; action
not words.
DEFEND PUBLIC EDUCATION AND STOP STATE AID TO PRIVATE RELIGIOUS SCHOOLS.
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