A passionate constituency
The Public Education Forum at Sydney Town Hall on February 19 was a magnificent event, writes MAREE O'HALLORAN.
The Public Education Forum was a physical demonstration of our passionate belief in the value and future of public education. On that night politicians from the major parties were forced to confront that passionate belief backed by the reasoned, practical and costed Vinson plan. Any politician who made empty promises or who subscribed to the prevailing philosophy that the role of state governance is micro-management and media manipulation was exposed under the scrutiny of the audience.
The fact that 2500 teachers, parents and students attended the event highlights that the Vinson Inquiry is a living process belonging to the community. The large numbers at the forum signals that the public education constituency intends to give political effect to the Vinson Inquiry's report. Thus the campaign will continue up to and beyond the state election.
The Carr Government's decision to support the Inquiry ensured that the Vinson team could undertake a comprehensive and complete Inquiry. It also ensured, however, that teachers and parents would expect the Government to act on the Inquiry's recommendations. In that context the resounding displeasure of the Town Hall crowd to the Government's appropriation of the language of Vinson with no dollars attached was easy to predict. Selective quotation and deferral of action is easily interpreted as patronising to those who support the Inquiry process.
It may be that the Government did not believe the Inquiry would be so demonstrably successful. Regardless, the Vinson Report is now received wisdom in the public domain and part of the lexicon of government and political parties. We have a right and a responsibility to demand that the plan either be funded by government or an alternative long-term plan be mooted.
Of everything that was said and not said at the Town Hall, I was most disappointed by the Minister telling us that, despite our commitment, the media didn't really care and the message about public education wasn't getting through. I took that comment to be about dampening our expectations. It was also an interesting insight into the thinking of a Minister deeply entrenched in a government that has taken media manipulation to such a height that its role as a government seems to have been subsumed.
Even if a return to government appears assured for the ALP, there are a number of factors in play which mitigate towards the Government announcing policies to fund the key Vinson initiatives. First and foremost, of course, is the inherent value of the initiatives. Secondly is the compelling argument that continuing to deny the public education constituency is a recipe for significant unrest over the next electoral cycle. In the words of John Brogden (2BL, February 21): "How can they expect after eight years to answer the genuine demands of parents and teachers on public education without spending real money?"
Thirdly, is the opportunity for the government to instigate some landmark positive changes in our system. The Vinson plan offers the government an opportunity to support teachers to make beneficial changes in the lives of our children and students. This type of long-term planning and investment may well help obviate the need for future crisis management in the states' services.
Finally, of course, the rise of the Greens as a stronger force in Australian politics has to be considered. The potential for Greens candidates to be successful in the Lower House as well as the Upper House was highlighted by the Wollongong Federal by-election in 2002. Furthermore, Greens votes may exhaust and therefore make the outcome in certain electorates unpredictable. These are both pressure points that may influence government.
The prevailing message from the Town Hall forum is that there is still time for the Minister's "if and when" announcements to occur if we keep the momentum going.
Salaries
Despite the Federation's best efforts in 2002 to both negotiate and provide plans for the process of the next salaries round, the Government has given very little. A Budget position paper provided to the Federation by the Premier appears to indicate that the Government does not intend to offer meaningful increases to teachers until at least the 2004/5 budget process. At this stage, despite any promises from the Minister, the stage looks set for the Government to repeat on the grounds of "fiscal responsibility" -- the same bitter drawn out process as the previous round. Teachers in Queensland are currently engaged in stopwork action, school-by-school, to protest against the Beattie Government's offer of 3.5 per cent per annum.
Our call for the Premier and the Minister to match their rhetoric about valuing teachers by joining the Federation in the Industrial Relations Commission to have the Vinson five per cent increase implemented has been rejected on the airwaves although the Federation has yet to receive a formal response.
Schools and TAFE colleges have begun meeting to discuss salaries and branch resolutions should be sent to the Premier, the Minister and the Opposition, as well as the Federation.
No war on Iraq
Federation unequivocally opposes the proposed war on Iraq. The scale of the protests on February 16 in Sydney, across Australia and world-wide shows that we are not alone. The peace rallies have provoked invective from Prime Minister John Howard but their impact cannot be denied. In the face of widespread opposition, the "coalition of the willing" has both stepped up its intimidation of the United Nations and argued that the justification for the war is now on humanitarian grounds. As I wrote in this column last edition, no-one doubts the terrible atrocities committed by Iraq's leader Saddam Hussein. Nevertheless, the devastation a war would cause to a country with half the population under 18 must surely outweigh any potential humanitarian gain. The real question now is what sort of devastation the "coalition of the willing" is willing to cause.
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February 2003 contents
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