Celebrating Public Education - Investing in Australia's Future

Colleagues,

We have just had quite a year. It was a time when the human spirit was sorely tested. It was a year in which our national leadership plumbed new depths. A year in which our Prime Minister, the petit Winston oversaw the diminishing of our nation and its values. We sleep a little more uneasily as do the nation's children. Not only because of some sense of terror without but also because of a resurgence of reaction within.

The further we travel from the wilful mediocrity of our federal leaders however, the more we might gain a sense of optimism and possibility. Last year at Conference our South Australian Branch was instructed to complete the mosaic of Labor governments at state and territory level. They have done so. We thank them for following the wishes of this Conference. More recently, the Victorian ALP was re-elected with a majority so vast that they could engage in sweeping reform and social improvement. We will never in our lifetimes have the opportunity to work in pursuit of national goals with such a uniform configuration of governments across Australia. We must seize this day. We realise well however that simply having a Labor government is not of itself a blessing.

As a new year begins for our country and us we think still of the chill terror of Bali. It brought home to us the new realities of the globalisation of evil and superstition, the random nature of young lives cut short and the cost of being seen to be a mere branch office of the goals and interests of a United States - militarily, culturally, economically and religiously. All people who claim, sword in hand, to be doing the work of God, are to be feared. Most recently, the Americans have proclaimed their preparedness to use their nuclear sword. Australia, for its part has declared a right to smite any of our neighbours.

Australia is a diminished place under the Howard government. Division has been fostered for political advantage at the very time our nation needs policies and leadership that emphasise cohesion, inclusion and acceptance. Sitting atop the wretched Tory pile we have a parson as head of state who is demonstrably unfit for public office. Teachers experience daily the growing hurt and fear many of our students internalise in a more disunited and intolerant nation.

Our Prime Minister continues to bring shame to our nation and fear to our neighbours. He shows a contempt for the countries, communities, beliefs and aspirations of those who should be close to us. His has all of the belligerence of the small-minded and the cold-hearted. Like Ariel Sharon and the Likud in Israel, his bellicose utterances and intentions in the name of security only make us more vulnerable, isolated and insecure. Like the South Africa of history past we have become the pariah nation of the southern hemisphere. John Howard is at once obsequious to the powerful and incapable of reconciliation with any of the powerless. He is devoid of that natural Australian affinity for the underdog.

In this context, this conference will and must give great attention to our task of Living and Working in a Peaceful World, to use the title of one of our workshops. We must oppose the march to war.

As the world and national situations become more strategically and morally perilous the role of public education is of the utmost importance. In this context, secular public education, which is proudly inclusive of students of all backgrounds and beliefs, must proceed with our essential task of creating a harmonious community based on mutual respect. The progressive pedagogy and liberal curriculum of Australian public education are vital in ensuring that our students are immersed in the values of anti-racism, non-sexism and the celebration of diversity and liberal, inclusive, democratic beliefs. More than ever, the principles of unionism and teaching in public education are intertwined.

It was more than a little ironic to hear Alexander Downer speak recently of the urgent need to support secular public education in Indonesia because, to his reasoning, sectarian systems of education cause distress, danger and disunity in nations. Well Comrade Downer got that right and we look forward to him extending these observations to our soil.

It has been somewhat distressing given the tawdry nature of the Federal Government to witness the sustained inaction and studied silences of what should be the federal opposition. They spent most of 2002 in a lengthy and irrelevant debate about internal party rules, a debate that settled little other than the seating plan for their next National Conference. There seems to be a pathological fear there to say what they believe, to pronounce what they know to be right, to stand up for the underdog, to, in Arthur Calwell's phrase: Be Just and Fear Not. They have apparently not wanted to say anything too radical lest they do poorly in the polls and popular sentiment. Might I observe that this particular strategy has not been spectacularly successful. Be Just and Fear Not.

The by-election in Cunningham showed what clear, progressive and forthright policies and leadership can yield. Over 12 months have passed since the new Labor team has been in place but still policy development retains the silence of the confessional. This has allowed
the truly loopy elements in the party to pass for thinkers or intellectuals. We have worked with the ALP at length and in considerable detail over the past year and we hope that 2003 brings them some voice, some courage and some vision.

Over 50 years ago, the great Australian poet, John Manifold, wrote a work directed to the British Labour Party after their party conference at Bournemouth in 1946. It begins,

"DEAR COMRADES
--or does that appal you
Now you've become such gentlemen?
Comrades is what I used to call you,
And hope to call you so again.

It then proceeds to deal with a Labour Party showing the timidity we are currently experiencing in this time and in this country. With great foresight as it turned out, Manifold warned that particular Labour Party:

"You may have cause enough to doubt us,
But this, believe me so, is true:
To win with us, or lose without us,
Is all the choice ahead of you."

It still holds true. For so long as ALP might stand for Another Liberal Party, it will be doomed to self-imposed irrelevance. The Coalition is taking this country towards an abyss. The need for leadership in Opposition has never been greater.

The Greens have certainly deserved all of the political recognition they have gathered in recent times for simply grasping this elemental reality. In Cunningham as well as in state and territory elections the Greens have flourished by believing in something and in proclaiming that belief. They well may become increasingly attractive to our members and to unions in the months and years to come.

The Democrats unfortunately appear to be heading south, this time as a direct consequence of their lack of substance and core belief and the apparent desire to become more right-wing. Notwithstanding their political self-immolation the Democrats are a political reality; they have seven senators still; they together hold the balance of power and we will and should continue to deal with them. We have met with the new leadership and plan to work further with them next year.

And speaking of dealing with people, I stood before you last year and indicated that we had taken a view on the Executive that we would have to deal seriously and conscientiously with the then new minister, Dr Brendan Nelson.

He held promise and possibility. And so we met and discussed and met again. He talked the talk of equity and needs and attending to the disadvantaged. He had worked with the poor. His uncle had been a communist. This he told me four times.

In 2002, we put well-developed and reasoned policies before him on literacy, on disadvantage, on Indigenous education, on teacher education, on teacher supply. We wrote letters and drafted submissions. And he used the term "mate" a lot just to prove his sincerity. He smiled a good deal. And then he smiled some more. Then we were left with absolutely nothing. A suspicion arose early that there was far less to him than met the eye.

When the Federal Budget came around he left David Kemp's iniquitous distribution of school funds untouched. He has been presented with a range of policy options that could make schools and TAFE better for millions of Australians. He has ignored them. On the range of the Howard Government travesties, including the trampling of human rights abroad and democratic rights at home, he has looked the other way. Like his namesake, Horatio Nelson he too is blind in the right eye. He has, consistent with Tony Abbott's desires, excluded unions and teachers from every inquiry and review that he has established.

He proclaims his concern for Indigenous Australians yet apart from a flurry of media releases he has found no new money for any program of substance. Indeed his most publicised foray into education policy in 2002 was his earnest desire post-Bali that the school day should start with the raising of the flag and the singing of the anthem. I am reminded here of Samuel Johnson's observation that "Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel". Nelson's gush about flags and anthems tramples over what these symbols have meant for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders.

Meanwhile, Nelson has discovered the people he regards as the most educationally disadvantaged in Australia - boys. All boys. He has bemoaned the fact that women make up a good deal of the profession and he has toured the country suggesting that this is, ipso facto, leading to the educational and social detriment of male students.

The word TAFE has scarcely passed his lips over the past 12 months except to push for the introduction of HECS into TAFE. In fact one of the bizarre highlights of the year was Doc Nelson's out of body experience at the Australian Training Awards night held in November. Nelson issued a media release claiming to have, "had the privilege of joining more than a 1000 guests to celebrate" the night and he went on to declare, "I was honoured to present the Prime Minister's Small Business of the Year Award". However, Nelson was not actually there and he sent his Department Head, Dr Peter Shergold to deliver the speech and awards who then asked the audience to "imagine" it was Dr Nelson delivering the speech.

We should expect more of this malarkey from Nelson, a man who has brought no new quality to his portfolio other than hypocrisy. All of Dr Kemp's policies are rigidly in place. Brendan Nelson is in office but he is certainly not in power. Indeed he is most reminiscent of that pop group of some years back, Milli Vanilli. You might recall that they were the group discovered to be moving their lips and smiling whilst some other people were supplying all of the words, sounds and ideas. Brendan Nelson is merely our latter-day Milli Vanilli.

Yet we will deal with all of this and at some stage see the back of all of them.

We will push forward. One of the more useful and clarifying pieces of research to come to our shores has been the presentation by the head of the OECD's Education Directorate, Dr Barry McGaw, an eminent name familiar to many of us. Professor McGaw spoke to an ACER Research Conference in Sydney in October and I present here for you some of his conclusions from the monumental PISA study into international standards.

From this we can conclude these things and establish these settings for our future work:

" that quality and equity can only be achieved as joint, non-competing goals;

" that Australia is one of the most inequitable nations in the developed world in terms of educational outcomes;

" that we must redouble our efforts for Indigenous Australians in public education;

" that equity must be a central part of all of our political campaigning.

We hope to hear more from Professor McGaw in Australia this year.

We will continue to give particular emphasis to our policy goals in relation to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders. Last year our campaigning had a special energy and enthusiasm and this will proceed.

In other domains there is much to look forward to. .MCEETYA and MINCO will continue to be in sounder hands and we will use these councils to develop and encourage national policy of worth and substance. .Last year we worked well with MCEETYA and we were pleased to see MCEETYA endorse a set of education funding principles which included advances in the interests of public education. .MINCO worked well, but not without some reluctance, towards rejecting HECS in TAFE.

2003 will see an increased focus on policy development within the non-government parties and the opportunity for some legislative initiatives will exist with the changed political realities in the Senate in particular. .The Federal Budget will take us a step closer to debates around the States Grants Act being renewed though it has been more than disconcerting to note the activities of our counterparts in the IEU which has launched strident campaigns for more funding for private education in some parts of Australia.

This campaign around funding justice has been given an added impetus with the release of the Senate Report into the Education of Students with Disabilities. This all-party report, chaired by a Liberal Senator and released within the last few weeks, contains the most significant conclusions regarding the funding of schools in Australia. Its findings in relation to the funding of school systems in Australia state that,

" On current funding trends, the Catholic education system will in 2004 have an estimated total income11.7 per cent higher than the estimated cost of educating primary and secondary students in government schools. For other non-government schools, estimated total income will be 7.8 per cent higher."

Whilst some of the senators on the committee believe that these figures vastly understate the amount of money received by private schools it should now forever dispel the myth of poor Catholic schools in this country and it must lead to the political imperative of redistributing billions of dollars back into public education.

The Vinson process in NSW, which provides weighty philosophical justification for such redistribution, has also brought us considerable encouragement not least because of the deep-seated affection and support for public education, which we have been reminded of along with the skilled political mobilisation of this sentiment.

So lingering and deep-seated is the concern for education and the issues that we campaign for that national polling still placed education consistently as the number one issue for electors throughout 2002. We have this most excellent reality to work within.

We will make sure that peace is trade union business. As teachers and unionists this responsibility falls to us perhaps like never before. We have a government anxious to release the dogs of war and a nation divided against itself.

In this context we have the job in our classrooms and in our unions of creating that better world filled with decent young people with good values. It is as simple as that, as tough as that and as important as that.