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Gillard lashes schools bill 'hypocrisy'

By Online parliamentary correspondent Emma Rodgers

Posted December 3, 2008 09:48:00
Updated December 3, 2008 11:39:00

'Liberal hypocrisy': Julia Gillard (AAP: Alan Porritt, file photo)

Federal Education Minister Julia Gillard has accused the Opposition of behaving hypocritically and irresponsibly in refusing to pass the $28 billion Schools Assistance bill.

Last night Coalition senators joined with Family First's Steve Fielding to remove provisions for a national curriculum in the bill, arguing that independent schools have not seen the details of the curriculum.

And this morning the Independent Schools Council of Australia and the National Catholic Education Commission both called on the Opposition to pass the bill.

The bill must go through before Parliament rises on Thursday to enable the funds to be delivered to private schools by next year.

But the Government will not be accepting the amendment made by the Coalition and Senator Fielding when it is returned to the Lower House.

Ms Gillard says independent schools want the bill passed and the Opposition is denying them their funding.

"This is just game-playing and hypocrisy from the Liberal Party, which in the past said it supported a national curriculum and in the past has required schools to sign up to things they haven't seen in order to get funding," she told Sabra Lane on ABC's AM program.

"[Education spokesman] Christopher Pyne and [Opposition Leader] Malcolm Turnbull will need to explain to mums and dads around this country why it is that they've put them in a position that their school will open in 2009 without the funds that schools desperately needs."

Ms Gillard says independent schools are being included in the formulation of the national curriculum, which was a Labor election promise.

"It's being written by an expert board where non-government schools are represented and working on the curriculum," she said.

Bill Daniels of the Independent Schools Council of Australia says it is happy with its involvement in the development of the curriculum and wants the bill passed.

"We regard it as absolutely essential that this legislation is passed to give schools and parents the certainty and funding stability that they need from the first of January next year," he said.

The National Catholic Education Commission's Bill Griffiths agrees and says he believes there is general support among parents for a national curriculum.

"We would ask that that the bill be agreed to and passed before the end of the year," he said.

But Opposition education spokesman Christopher Pyne says by linking the funds to the introduction of a national curriculum the Government is stopping possible debate on its formulation.

"They've linked the national curriculum to a $28 billion bill and said that we'll hold a gun to the heads of schools and the Opposition and Senator Fielding if they don't pass it," he said.

The Government has allowed two other amendments to the bill but Mr Pyne says that does not mean the Coalition should give in.

"I don't see this as a bargaining process," he said.

"It's not a night at the casino and you've won two out of three so it's time to pick up your chips and leave the table."

Tags: education, federal-government, australia

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Comments (101)

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Captain Awesome:

03 Dec 2008 10:10:03am

Good job Fielding!

Bow to your masters. Changing your party next election?

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Dave:

03 Dec 2008 10:13:39am

How unusual for Fielding to support the opposition. This imposter was elected under the mantle of Family First. Since then he was the deciding vote on Work Choices, the most family unfriendly legislation in history, and he has supported every liberal argument.

Is a stooge by any other name less of a liberal?

Agree (5) Alert moderator
pmoes:

03 Dec 2008 10:13:46am

Total hypocrisy. Christopher Wine is just trying to make headlines for himself.
Labour should have completely abolished the funding mechanism they kept from the Libs and now the Libs want to change it!?!
A national curriculum will not work effectively. Learning should be constructed from the environment in which students live, not from an office in a capital city somewhere.
Ranking tables are a means to better enable the selling of services from the corporate sector to the public sector

Agree (0) Alert moderator
more of the same:

03 Dec 2008 10:15:39am

I'm fed up. The bickering never ceases. Why can't the people we vote for ever work constructively together? Ok, so there are party lines, but what ever happened to acting like mature, responsible and wise adults? Did we only vote for the best candidate? Were there actually no wise people to vote for?
I don't speak for everyone, but much of the public is really getting tired of political games and childish banter from our "leaders".
Bit of maturity PLEASE!

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Smaug:

03 Dec 2008 10:16:59am

Oh come on, Linking funding to ideology is something Howard revelled in, almost every bit of funding he provided to the states was ideologically tied by Howard to screw unions or some other group Howard disliked.
A national curriculum is something both parties agreed to.
Personally bring of a double dissolution, the Libs certainly won't get back in with the way their behaving and Fielding doesn't have a hope no matter what happens.

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Bushranger:

03 Dec 2008 10:17:53am

This is the same mob that made having a flagpole a prerequisite for funding. The Liberals are despicable. They place no value on education at all. They know full well that stopping funding will only hurt lower socio-economic schools - the flash schools they attended will be fine.

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Jason:

03 Dec 2008 10:19:26am

Well, as one of the parents whom Comrade Julia is so keen to protect, I for one am quite happy to have this bill sent back for re-consideration.

It is typical of a Labor Government, that they slip an undefined national cirriculum into a badly needed funding package.

That our education system needs reform at the national level is obvious. What is not obvious, is, the next step of the Labor Government. Having established the framework for national propaganda, sorry, I mean cirriculum; what's next?

The recent workplace "reforms" show how much of a stranglehold the trade unions have over our Dear Leader and his team. With a national cirriculum, all the Maoists and Marxists from the teachers unions would have open slather on the political re-education of our kids.

Federation may be unwieldy, but it surely beats the Canberra Thought Police controlling each and every school in the country.

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Captain Awesome:

03 Dec 2008 10:20:04am

I'm seriously hoping that the Government call a double disillusion. I really am.

Policies? ALP have them. Greens have them. Liberals don't.
Public Support? ALP has it. Greens has it. Liberals don't.
Support from the financial sector? ALP has it. Liberals don't.
Support from workers? ALP has it. Liberals don't.
Support from employers? ALP has it. Liberals don't.

C'mon. Do it Malcy. Push for it. It'll be great.

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Big Yin:

03 Dec 2008 10:22:02am

When it comes to 'hypocrisy' and obfuscation, Big Red knows no bounds! The opposition have no problem passing the funding component of this legislation. What they won't agree to is cart blanche about the curriculum, without having acess to the details of any proposed changes. Gillard, instead of being so stubborn, split the bill and the funding will be passed. Simple solution!

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Jamie Bloomfield:

03 Dec 2008 10:22:06am

Good on you Julia. Stand your ground. If we're going to subsidise private schools, they must be subject to the same provisions as public schools. If the bill is not passed, Australia will immediately save $28 billion on something it shouldn't be funding anyway. Public schools have been seriously underfunded for some time now, particularly over the last 12 years. Let's end this elitist crap right now and use this $28 billion to make the public system 1st class, then there would be no need for private schools.

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drew:

03 Dec 2008 10:24:49am

Pyne really makes the Liberal Party look stupid.

Turnball has great potential.

but there is no doubt Pyne and Bishop must go.

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Gary:

03 Dec 2008 10:29:04am

The opposition is once again looking silly.
They seem to be making a practice of arguing against things they believe in. Cynical in the extreme.
And Christopher Pyne is doing such a poor job. If Julie Bishop is worried about her job - Mr Pyne should be panicking. Fancy having to align yourself with Steve Fielding!
The government must stand firm on this one and at some stage Malcolm Turnbull must exert more authority and get his troops focussed on being a viable alternative government.

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Indi:

03 Dec 2008 10:29:53am

Am I mis-remembering or was a national curriculum the brainchild of the Liberal Party prior to the last election? It was thena convenient stick with which to beat State Labor governments and teachers' unions. There was also a sense of public education as inevitably delivering lower standards built in to teh announcement of the Federal governments announcements. Now it seems that the national curriculum was never meant to apply to the private education sector. What are the fears? That it might contain compulsory sex-education, or biology which doesn't teach creationism, (sorry, intelligent design)? Perhaps Keynsian economics might be taught, or actual Australian history not just the triumphalist version? To use a Howardian rhtoric, what to these private schools have to hide?

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Say no to nuclear:

03 Dec 2008 10:31:42am

Well done, Mr. Pyne, for taking on the Federal Government!

Stop interfering with non-governmental schools in the bill, Ms Gillard. Unlike the great majority of government schools (just look at the shambles in Adelaide), most non-governmental schools actually know what they are doing. Just give them the money they rightly deserve.

By the way, most parents, who send their children there, are not rich, but they do see the value of a good education and are prepared to pay for it. Of course, they pay taxes.

Stop this class war, Ms Gillard, or, you'll be judged harshly at the next election, just as Mark was.

cheers

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JvO:

03 Dec 2008 10:44:45am

Julia Gillard is spot on, the liberals once again show to be performing in their typical, hypocritical, obstructionists way in the vain hope of making political mileage.
They just lack the courage, the grace, the conviction to ever say " Me Too " even if they contradict themselves and make utter fools of themselves.
Malcolm, you may have taken leave already but I suggest you have more on your plate than just calling over ambitious colleagues to order or protecting a plagiarizing deputy.
Julia Gillard's proposal to provide more equitable school funding is to be applauded and is what all Australians would consider as a fair go for everybody.

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Amen:

03 Dec 2008 10:46:25am

Looks like a half cooked policy to me; I was taught from a very young age not to sign anything without a) reading it and b) understanding it.

Julia is trying to use money to force through a national curriculum that even she does not have to hand yet.

I have no objection to any part of the proposed bill but I do have objection to all of that blank space yet to be filled in.

By the way, I have just been charged nearly $2,000 for my sons new computer... the policy on the run should mean he was given one for his use, where's that money Julia... would you please finish at least one job properly!

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Derridian:

03 Dec 2008 10:48:50am

Are the Opposition actually suggesting that a 'National' curriculum should only apply to public schools? Are they declaring that Private Schools should be treated differently? What's the point of having a 'National' curriculum? Surely the position should be that a 'National' curriculum is 'Nationally' applied.

What conceivable danger could there be in a curriculum alteration? Oh... that's right... the 'Black Armband' view of history may be reintroduced in replacing the sanitized nonsense that Bishop and others promoted under the Howard Regime! I recall one of Bishop's press releases initially claiming that Mao's Little Red Book was what certain educationalists wished to see instituted in curricula. The claim was later omitted when her nonsensical propagandizing was exposed!

Quite frankly the Opposition are worried because there may be more liberty in education, one with a broader examination of alternative views, than their conservative inclinations permit. Freedom of thought is anathema to these people and that extends to education. Wrote learning has been proven to be ludicrously inferior... it's time to let go of the chalk and slate mentality exhibited by the Opposition and to seriously commit to a broader educational model.

Stop obfuscating for Political gain and pass the measure... the only victims in all of this will be students attending Private Schools. Still... Pyne, Bishop, et al see them as mere cannon fodder in the great debate don't they!!!

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dollas:

03 Dec 2008 10:50:32am

The opposition have every right to demand accountability from a government that has had a year of free rein. In that time they have squandered a fairly large budget excess on trivial vote-snaring projects that won't give us even an inch of infrastructure.

Julia and the rest of the pig-pen are digging in their trotters to try and get mileage out of a perfectly reasonable request from the opposition and greens for more transparency. Labour doesn't like having to toe their own line.

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Jim Bendfeldt:

03 Dec 2008 10:56:12am

Here we go again, Fielding playing right field! The man (and party) that attracted a whopping 2500 votes (0.13%) gets to lay down the laws of this country.

Oh I almost forgot, Fielding was elected on Labor Party preferences!

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Richard Bender:

03 Dec 2008 11:01:36am

These "problems" are created simply because the Commonwealth wants to interfere in things in which they have not business. The quicker Ms Gillard realises that the Commonwealth has no constitutional power over education and ceases abusing its grants power, the better.

If the Commonwealth wishes to fund education it should do it via vouchers that parents may take to a school of their choosing, whether run by a State or Territory government or a private concern. Then we can stop all the political interference - at least at the Commonwealth level - in what schools do and do not teach.

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ernie davies:

03 Dec 2008 11:06:21am

Who are these people who seek to stop any improvement to the education system, I hope the handful of people who voted Family First hang there head in shame.
Also what is it that the private schools do not wish to be examined, interesting.

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P B White:

03 Dec 2008 11:09:06am

It's so good to see Senator Fielding keeping true to form. I would hate to see him support anything worthwhile -- it would ruin his outstanding record.

The opposition doesn't seem to have got the idea that they have to come up with some alternative policies, and not just wreck someone else's. I am reminded of a bunch of 6 year olds in the school sandbox... [sigh]

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Pennee:

03 Dec 2008 11:10:36am

I hate to say it but it's the ALP that's denying the schools funding by linking it to a national curriculum. The should also have anticipated that this would be unpallatable to the Coallition as most Libs support independent schools because they can create a more individualised curriculum catered to the students needs and their parents wishes. Creating a national curriculum flys in the face of what these schools (that now educate the majority of students in Qld and probably similar in other states) are trying to achieve.

How dare the ALP link funding to their social engineering of individuals through schooling?

And how dare they also attack the soverignty of the states to set curriculum and direct education?

If anyone is playing politics it's Gillard and she seems very bitter that her plan has backfired.

Gillard lashes schools bill 'hypocrisy'

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Comments (101)

Captain Awesome:

Dave:

Jamie Bloomfield:

wmc:

Nth Qld boy:

pmoes:

Dan Mc:

Pennee:

more of the same:

Patch:

Pennee:

twobob:

Lindsay Cooper:

BJ:

Smaug:

Baz:

Patch:

MT:

Pennee:

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Guy:

Jamie Bloomfield:

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Nth Qld boy:

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Captain Intelligent:

Smaug:

adrian:

Trev:

Braz:

Captain Intelligent:

Jamie Bloomfield:

Captain Intelligent:

Andrew:

Big Yin:

Jamie Bloomfield:

MT:

Jamie Bloomfield:

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chalkie:

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Jerome:

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Amen:

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Say no to nuclear:

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