Howard Government pushing Carr on deregulation

by Sally Edsall

The Carr Government is using the Federal Government's Bill for the funding of schools as leverage in its own deregulation agenda.

The federal Bill comes forward in the context of attacks on public schools and public school teachers inherent in the Prime Minister John Howard's January "dog-whistling" around an alleged "lack of values" being taught in Australia's public schools.

Prior to the last federal election, political commentator, Laurie Oakes wrote in The Bulletin on November 7, 2001:

"The key feature of this election campaign has been a clever use of what professionals call 'dog whistle politics'. A dog whistle is pitched so high that dogs hear it but humans do not. Dog whistle politics involves pitching a message to a particular group of voters that other voters do not hear. John Howard wanted One Nation voters back. He also saw a chance to attract some traditional 'blue-collar' Labor voters with similar concerns. The Tampa episode provided him with the dog whistle he needed."

This time around, it appears that Howard has decided to harness the manufactured "crisis in public education" to the same cause. In doing so, the Government has managed to conceal issues of real importance, which should be subject to very close scrutiny and debate. These include the obscene real levels of funding to private schools, and the strong-arming of compliance around various other agendas such as standardised testing, league tables and deregulation.

In the last days before Federal Parliament rose for the winter recess, the Government introduced its latest round of funding largesse to private schools, in the form of the Schools Assistance (Learning Together -- Achievement Through Choice and Opportunity) Bill 2004.

The funding increases had already been announced by the Government, in press releases dated March 11. All was re-iterated in the Budget of May 11.

The Government also made known certain conditions which were to be met in order for schools and school systems to be able to receive funding.

Among these conditions are some which aid and abet the Carr Government's latest deregulation agenda, including the state education authorities having to:

• ensure that appointments of staff in government schools are made with the approval of the principal or governing body of the school. (In the case of Catholic schools, this will take account of the relationship with the bishop, parish priest and the leadership of religious institutions).
• give the principal and the governing body of a government school strengthened autonomy over, and responsibility for, education programs, staffing, budget and other aspects of the school's operations within a framework of broad systemic policies.

A search of the Bill itself reveals that the words "flag" and "flagpole" do not appear. That revelation was reserved for a media release from the Education Minister Brendan Nelson, issued on June 22, the day before the funding Bill was introduced into Parliament. Contained within that media release was a short statement which then consumed media attention for the next week: "Every school must also have a functioning flagpole, fly the Australian flag and display the values framework in a prominent place in the school, as a condition of funding."

This is classic "dog-whistling" politics as defined by Laurie Oakes in 2001. An Australian flag fluttering from a flagpole as a condition of funding for education became emblematic of the "values debate" which Howard had launched months earlier as a first salvo in his attack on public schools, and which had been addressed by teachers, parents and principals who more than adequately debunked the earlier campaign as the nonsense that it is.

Meanwhile, as the media whipped itself into a frothy lather about flagpoles, the very serious objections to the Bill being presented by the public education community were lost.

The Carr Government managed to re-launch its own deregulation agenda under this cover, and the Latham-led Labor party agreed to pass the funding Bill.

Sally Edsall is a Research Officer.

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Last Modified: 15 Nov 2005