An opportunity to govern in the national interest

By Maree O’Halloran

The federal election result signals the opportunity and hope for a change in the character and nature of the society in which we live.

The defeat of John Howard and the Coalition parties must signal the end of government in the interests of big business, the wealthy and those who are already privileged in our society.

Public schools and TAFE colleges are open and available to all Australians. Public education was founded in the national interest. It is the bulwark against inequality and forms the starting point for an egalitarian society. When public education is deliberately undermined by government and starved of funds then "the seeds of an institutionalised class system" are sown (Hugh Mackay, The Age, November 24).

I would like to congratulate all Federation members who have campaigned tirelessly for public education, rights at work and the defeat of John Howard's government. The electorate has emphatically rejected WorkChoices and the Coalition's attack on working people and the union movement. Federation has been proud to strongly support and be involved in the ACTU/Unions NSW Your Rights at Work community campaign. That campaign ensured that those who introduced and voted for WorkChoices in Parliament were held accountable by the electorate. Federation will continue to work with the broader union movement to ensure that people's rights at work are protected, WorkChoices abolished and the ideology underpinning it rejected entirely. Both ACTU President Sharan Burrow and Unions NSW Secretary John Robertson have signalled their intention to continue the campaign.

Federation congratulates Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and the incoming government members on their decisive election victory. Mr Rudd has promised to govern in the national interest for all Australians. We call on the incoming government to ensure that investment to maintain education of the highest quality for the students in Australia's public schools and TAFE is made a national priority. The current shortfall from both federal and state governments is $2.9 billion per annum for public schools. The Australian Education Union's claim for TAFE is $470 million in 2008 rising to over $2 billion over the next four years.

As Prime Minister Mr Rudd inherits a country which spends less public money as a proportion of spending on educational institutions than almost all OECD nations. In fact, it is the third lowest of 26 nations (included in that public expenditure is the public money handed to private institutions).

Mr Rudd's "Education Revolution" will provide some additional targeted funding to public schools and TAFE colleges. However, his party's commitment made on October 9 to continue the flawed and iniquitous socio economic status funding formula for private schools was, at best, a policy to appease sectional interests.

As NSW Education Minister John Della Bosca said on many occasions this year about the Howard Federal Government: "It is a national scandal that a child who began kindergarten in 1995 has reached their HSC year never having seen an increase in public school funding from any Howard-led government, beyond state-based indexation."

Mr Della Bosca was, of course, referring to federal recurrent funding for public schools.

It will be a national scandal each and every year that a Rudd Labor Government retains John Howard's formulas for recurrent funding.

There is no doubt that policy convergence between Kevin Rudd and John Howard on several issues is cause for concern. The extremism of the Howard years must be opposed. In particular, media "league tables" of schools and hence their local communities must be opposed.

Yet this election does signal the opportunity and hope for a change in the character and nature of the society in which we live. Mr Rudd, for example, rejects the rampant individualism of the Howard area. In an article titled "Faith in Politics" in The Monthly (October 2006) he said: "Social-democratic values are a check on rampant individualism, in part because rampant individualism, unconstrained by any responsibility for interest beyond the individual, is inherently destructive. That is why liberal capitalism, left unfettered, is capable of destroying any social institution that inhibits the maximisation of individual self-interest. That includes the family itself."

At his campaign launch Mr Rudd said: "I believe education is the engine room of equity. The engine room of opportunity and the engine room of the economy."

At the very least there is some common ground for public discourse.

In the meantime the more likely candidates for reigniting the Howard ideology of local "hire and fire" are in the NSW Department of Education. Its failure to date to renegotiate a statewide system of guaranteed staffing to schools signals that the battle is on. The Department's play for unfettered managerial prerogative is the precursor to the deregulation of staffing and employment conditions. I ask members to be prepared for a concerted campaign in 2008 including industrial action for "more teachers, better salaries and a secure staffing system".

On Friday November 23, I had the privilege of seeing the Schools Spectacular at the Sydney Entertainment Centre. Watching the many talented individuals performing alone and in the massed spectacles epitomised the strength of the public education system. Thank you to everyone involved.

And finally, Vale Bernie Banton. Thank you for your determination to work with the union movement to bring justice to James Hardie employees suffering from asbestos-related diseases.

Maree O'Halloran is the President.

A promise to all Australians

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November 2007 contents