AUSTRALIAN COUNCIL FOR THE DEFENCE OF GOVERNMENT SCHOOLS - D.O.G.S. PRESS RELEASE 54#. |
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CONSPIRACY OF SILENCE ON ENORMITY OF INCREASES TO SECTARIAN EDUCATION FUNDING.
Once more both Politicians and Press have gone silent on the extraordinary increases to private sectarian schools.
To cover up massive favouritism of sectarian schools the Treasurer’s speech failed to even feature funding to education at all. On Budget day Brendan Nelson , the Federal Minister for Education Science and Training issued two News Releases which were 5 ½ pages in length. Not one mention was made about the massive increases to sectarian church schools.
The media highlighted increases in federal budget to funding of internal and external security. They gave the impression that defence and border protection were the big winners. A perusal of budget documents reveals otherwise.
Increases in areas of expenditure in the short term 2001-02 and 2002-03 and in the longer term 2001-02 to 2005-06, indicates that the private school sector are the big winners all round. They have elbowed the army, internal security, the pensioners, the poor , the disabled, not to mention public schools, universities and TAFE out of the race. Once again we witness the greedy robbing the needy – in the name of religion!
Compare the following short term increases 2001-02 to 2002-03:
Total Sectarian church schools: 8.5%
Public Order and Safety: 7.6%
Defence 7.5%
Health 5.8%
Social Security and Welfare 4.6%
Higher Education 3.8 %
Public Education 2.7%
To add insult to injury, consider long term increases, 2001-02 to 2005-06:
Total Sectarian church schools: 37.2%
Public Order and Safety: 9.1%
Defence 22.4%
Health 23.2%
Social Security and Welfare 17.2%
Higher Education 10.4 %
Public Education 21.8%
This Budget episode once more illustrates the age old lesson that church schools are a cancer in the body politic. They corrupt and corrode the processes of government for their own ends.
Australia ‘s best defence is expenditure on public education whether it be in schools, universities or the TAFE sector. These institutions bring our next generation together in harmony through a liberal philosophy. They do not separate and indoctrinate on the basis of class, creed, or colour.
Politicians and Press have avoided the issue for at least 38 years. It is more than time they faced up to their responsibilities to Australian citizens and taxpayers and called a halt to this outrage!
Has the ALP got the intestinal fortitude to block these sectarian funding policies in the Senate along with the attacks on the disabled?
Or do they want our public school children to be permanently disabled in the funding race?
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| Last modified:Monday, 25 April 2005 |