FEDERAL ELECTION 2004: PROSPECTS FOR PUBLIC EDUCATION

The shouting and the tumult are all but over. Those who love liberty and support our public education systems are alarmed at the election result. But consider the following:

1.    Mr Howard is in power on approximately 40% of the vote of the Australian voting population. Between 10% and 12% voted informal and another 10% either were not or were not permitted to be registered voters.

2.    The Greens primary vote increased. They have entered  the middle ground of Australian politics. They can live and prosper with a clean conscience to fight the next round.

3.    During the election campaign leaders of the two major established religions in Australia showed their true colours. As proved by the history of their churches in Europe, they came out publicly as bastions of  class systems. They placed getting access to taxpayer's billions and power above the educational welfare of ALL the nation's children.

4.    Although Howard thanked the "Divine Intervention" of the leaders of the major hierarchical religions, Latham agreed with DOGS and other public school supporters that the exposure of  wealthy church interests were no disadvantage.

5.    Labor Party apparachiks showed their true colors in that they gave their voting preference to the Family First Party ( the 1.9% party) rather than the Greens - and failed to  inform many supporters at polling booths that they had done this deal.

6.    The Prime Minister appealed to the insecurities of the mortgaged middle class but  interest rates will rise anyway. If and when they rise, where will fees for the private school children of the insecure bankrupted middle classes come from?

7.    The Howard Government, like the Kennett Government in Victoria nailed their colours to the mast as supporters of private church schools and opponents of public education . The Labor opposition promised to be wolves in sheep's clothing ( as they proved to be in 1972/73) peddling suggestions of an integrated "public " school system. The "integrated" system in New Zealand has proved a means of destroying a genuinely public system while the church system has its cake and eats it.

8.    DOGS suggest that there are advantages to dealing with the devil one knows rather than one with a softly softly approach.

9.    DOGS suggest that with Howard there is still a public system, albeit a severely under funded one which we can still fight for. It is uncertain whether a Labor government would not severely compromise the fundamental tenets of a free, secular, compulsory and universal system of education. 

10.    Finally,  arch Conservatives in Australia  have opened a Pandora's box of many nasty problems which our forefathers hoped they had left behind in the "Old World". Among other things, a threatened returned to a class riddled, sectarian system of education dominated by conservative religious men looms large on our horizon.

DOGS remind supporters of public education to remember what emerged - finally - from the box which Pandora opened so injudiciously:

HOPE!

And so we fight on for the cornerstone of a liberal, democratic, and heterogeneous society  a free secular, and universal education system.

This is a public education system which is

• public in purpose

• public in outcome

• public in access

• public in ownership

• public in control

• public in accountability

• public in funding