Press Releases

Public School Interest Groups Left out in the Cold in Funding Talks

Press Release 509

Public school interest groups have been largely ignored by the government in talks about funding models for disadvantaged students.

The funding for the 77% of low income students is held hostage to talks being held by Gillard and Garrett with the private school lobby.

Unfortunately, the public school interest groups (with the notable exception of the New South Wales Teachers Federation and some representatives in the Australian Education Union) were duchessed out of relevance thirty years ago.

Max Wallace on Advancing Secularism in Australia

Press Release 508

Max Wallace says that the great disappointment for secular activism internationally is that Christopher Hitchens died before he could never turn his mind to church wealth and their tax exemptions. Had he done so we would be much further down the track in terms of the public awareness of this issue.

Here, in round figures, are the net equity, and cash and bank balances, of the top fourteen religious organisations in New Zealand from the data bases of the New Zealand Charities Commission. I can’t give you the Australian amounts because religious organisations have been exempted from reporting to the new Australian Charities Commission.

Is User-Pays Sectarian the Way of the Future for Australia?

Press Release 505

Will our world class public education system be kicked into the dustbin of history by fearful politicians and religious bureauc Even if the Gillard Government survives and gets sufficient finance - they do not have the intestinal fortitude to call the bluff of the sectarian lobb The public education system and is being starved out of existence

Multi-National For-Profit Corporations to Provide Public Education?

Press Release 504

Since 1964 diversion of billions of dollars of public funding from the public to the private education sector has undermined public education.

Since the 1990s -with

private/public partnerships;
shared facilities;
independent public schools;
and refusal to build new public schools in developing areas

attempts are being made to privatise public education. Australian parents are expected to mortgage their children’s future in a ‘user-pays’ economic system in which ‘choice’ - with ‘no choice’ for the poor - reigns supreme.

BUT

In 2013 conservative Australian governments are going one step further.

They are considering blatant profiteering in the primary and secondary as well as the tertiary sector of education.

Katherine Feeney brisbanetimes.com.au urban affairs reporter and blogger reported on 28 January 2013 that the Queensland Newman Government’s Education Minister John-Paul Langbroek is considering the introduction of for-profit primary and high schools. He sees the outsourcing of the educational opportunities of a nation’s children this as a logical extension of the principle of ‘choice.’

Senator Doug Cameron, Discrimination, and Separation of Church and State

Press Release 502

The current debate over the Federal Government’s proposed anti-discrimination legislation has thrown into relief the inevitable result of entanglement between religion and the state.

The draft Human Rights and Anti-discrimination Bill is currently being examined by a Senate inquiry and some church leaders claim that the Prime Minister had assured that that she has no intention of limiting religious freedom –code for their freedom to discriminate on the basis of religion and lifestyle.

Religious Discrimination In Employment: Religion: A State Within The State

Press Release 501

Labor's Human Rights and Anti-Discrimination Bill which is currently before the Senate offers religious employers open slather. It has long been a problem for teachers. It is now becoming a political issue.

DOGS are not surprised. They have always said that centuries of religious conflict led the Men of the Enlightenment to realise that If you break the principle of separation of religion and the State;

 

Taxation Exemptions: Expenditures In Favour Of The Rich

Press Release 500

The Australian Education Debate is top-heavy with facts, figures, testing procedures and statistics.
Yet there is a crucial figure that is constantly left out of the private school funding equation: taxation expenditures which generally go by the name of taxation exemptions.
Julia Gillard is looking for at least $4 billion for Australian public schools. Perhaps she should be looking at the non-for profit profiteering sector to find it.