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The Abbott Government

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drsmith said:
Watching the start of question time, I'm now wondering if there was indeed method in the madness. Bill Shorten's first to questions to the PM were on education funding. It seems he didn't have a question time plan B.
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I would say Shorten got caught with his pants down again......A brilliant piece of work by Abbott and Pyne to announce the school funding scheme out side parliament just 20 minutes before question time.

It sure threw a spanner in the works for Labor during question time. There attack questions were all thrown out of kilter.
 
Surprised at how the education thing evolved.

Abbott / Pyne took a heap of damage to arrive at the point they promised before the election.

I wonder if Pyne will be let off the hook again.

Chaos government run by opinion polls at this stage is surprising.
 
IFocus said:
Surprised at how the education thing evolved.

Abbott / Pyne took a heap of damage to arrive at the point they promised before the election.

I wonder if Pyne will be let off the hook again.

Chaos government run by opinion polls at this stage is surprising.
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Ditto ... now just change the names to Gillard/Shorten and wind the clock back and does it look familiar? ;)
 
IFocus said:
Chaos government run by opinion polls at this stage is surprising.
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All Tony wants is to be liked. It's the only explanation for trying to be everything to everyone. You know, tough on welfare and the boarders, rivers of gold for mothers, infrastructure for all, money for schools in all states even if you originally said no to the money, open for business...except on Fridays at the behest of "important people" (got to love Ponzi Joe's eloquence, but at least he's a bit more honest in admitting the real reason for his decision).

trainspotter said:
Ditto ... now just change the names to Gillard/Shorten and wind the clock back and does it look familiar? ;)
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Hmm. But aren't the adults supposed to be in charge? Maybe they're having a mid life crisis. Anyone know if Tony or Pyne have recently bought a sports car....or for Tony maybe a new Bianchi or Pinarello carbon fibre road bike.
 
Just to pour fuel on the fire :D

The expression to give free rein to is figurative. It means to give a person freedom to act on his own authority. It derives from an equestrian term.

The word reign derives from a Latin word for kingship. To reign means to exercise the power of a king.

Maybe you are referring to conflation? Either way to place the words "free" and "reign" in a sentence is an oxymoron.

releasethehounds.jpeg

I love how the media is headlining a BACKFLIP and a triple BACKFLIPSKI !!

But but but ... there are no strings attached to the funding. They can distribute the money how they like among their schools.

The latest change has rewarded the Queensland, WA and NT governments for holding out on the Gonski deal - they will now receive extra funding without any conditions. As part of the "no strings" deal, Queensland will escape Labor's original demands that it pledge not to cut its own school budget and match half of the federal boost.
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http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/...s-gonski-reforms/story-fnihsrf2-1226773762581
 
trainspotter said:
But but but ... there are no strings attached to the funding. They can distribute the money how they like among their schools.

http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/...s-gonski-reforms/story-fnihsrf2-1226773762581
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I don't get it that they are handing over money that the states can just suck into general revenue, there is no agreements on how its spent.

Hockey must be exasperated at having been rolled by the Nats and now Pyne has thrown an extra $bil around.

Strange days.
 
Paul Kelly's take on the government's Gonski gymnastics,

THE train wreck over Gonski school funding is a template for the diabolical fiscal dilemma facing the Abbott government -- this was a case of cabinet's Expenditure Review Committee pushing for more savings but falling foul of the Coalition's election pledges. Christopher Pyne was personally given a letter by Tony Abbott that embodied the ERC's deliberations. He was given a tough job but he mishandled it, causing deep agitation within the PM's office. The ERC decided to commit to promised Gonski school funding for one year for the non-signatory states. Pyne's brief was to run a public operation and private negotiation to try to get savings from the total pool of Gonski money given that NSW and Victoria had been generously treated.
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http://www.theaustralian.com.au/new...ski-train-wreck/story-e6frg6n6-1226774531284#

Christopher Pyne was personally given a letter by Tony Abbott that embodied the ERC’s deliberations. He was given a tough job but he mishandled it, causing deep agitation within the PM’s office. The ERC decided to commit to promised Gonski school funding for one year for the non-signatory states. Pyne’s brief was to run a public operation and private negotiation to try to get savings from the total pool of Gonski money given that NSW and Victoria had been generously treated…

It was never going to be realised because it ran into the brick wall of the election campaign pledges made by Abbott.

When the Prime Minister briefed Pyne, his Education Minister was scarcely happy. It was agreed he would begin by making a political issue of Labor’s removal of $1.2 billion from the pre-election estimates as the prelude to getting a better overall deal for the national government…

In the end [the Government] was battered into political submission.

Last Sunday night at a meeting involving Abbott, Julie Bishop, Joe Hockey, Pyne and Peta Credlin the decision was taken to cut their losses.
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http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/

Meanwhile, Labor has done a backflip of it's own, reversing it's policy in relation to cuts to the university sector at a cost of $2.3bn to the budget.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/nat...on-23bn-savings/story-fn59nlz9-1226774543152#
 
IFocus said:
I don't get it that they are handing over money that the states can just suck into general revenue, there is no agreements on how its spent.

Hockey must be exasperated at having been rolled by the Nats and now Pyne has thrown an extra $bil around.

Strange days.
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Errrmmmmm NO ! They are given the funding on the proviso that it is spent on education. Labor wanted to impose management plans for states' schools systems, setting up Canberra-based inspectors and gathering extra data in Canberra. So an education system over an education system or an extra layer of incompetence?

"I suspect that New South Wales and Victoria will be happy to lose the Canberra command and control elements of those deals but certainly the financial arrangements for the next four years will be absolutely adhered to," he said.

The Coalition Government wants to "dismantle" the regulations and red tape associated with Labor's deal, saying it does not want to "run public schools out of Canberra".
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http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-12-02/abbott-gonski/5129118
 
The Abbott Govt must be living in a Steve Jobs style reality distortion field if they thought appointing Don Randall to the parliamentary committee overseeing privileges and members' interests was a sensible decision.

I suppose he does have intimate knowledge of how to game the system. Surely they had someone else in their ranks who could have been appointed? Obviously not.
 
It seems crazy, that everyone is upset the government has dumped the Labor parties Gonski school reforms.
The Labor Party were thrown out because of failed initiatives, why the hell would Gonski be any different.
Australia's spending on education has increased consistently over the last decade and the learning outcomes have consistently fallen.
Maybe it is time to stop throwing good money after bad, and look at the curriculum and testing learning outcomes.
Instead of paying more for the same dismal outcome.IMO
Abbott really needs to think about setting things up for a double dissolution asap.
 
sptrawler said:
It seems crazy, that everyone is upset the government has dumped the Labor parties Gonski school reforms.
The Labor Party were thrown out because of failed initiatives, why the hell would Gonski be any different.
Australia's spending on education has increased consistently over the last decade and the learning outcomes have consistently fallen.
Maybe it is time to stop throwing good money after bad, and look at the curriculum and testing learning outcomes.
Instead of paying more for the same dismal outcome.IMO
Abbott really needs to think about setting things up for a double dissolution asap.
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The only way that can happen, and it would be a 10 year plus program, is to make people see teaching as a career.

Why would anyone want to be a teacher when teh students disrespect you, lazy parents blame teachers and schools for failing their children when they show little interest in educational outcomes.

Factor in so many public school teachers are not able to get full time work, which makes getting a housing loan difficult.

Directing more money to the private sector isn't going to make things better.

Unless we make teaching a rewarding and viable career for future generations we will keep on falling further and further down the ladder as those countries hungrier than us eat our lunch. I don't expect either side of politics to present the hard truth to us, but Abbott is the one who supposedly has that responsibility now but is, to use the Howard term, not showing much ticker at this point in time.
 
sptrawler said:
It seems crazy...
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The politico/journalistic landscape has gone a bit troppo IMO. No sober analysis and watching ho the new gu'mint goes, just non stop sensationalism and totally BS hanging of **** at every opportunity.

I cannot recall such a puerile and poisonous period at the beginning of an administration.

Hell, I'm not agin hanging sh8t off any government and have slagged off both sides at various times, but at this stage of proceeding I find it ridiculous, pointless and societally disappointing.
 
sydboy007 said:
The only way that can happen, and it would be a 10 year plus program, is to make people see teaching as a career.

Why would anyone want to be a teacher when teh students disrespect you, lazy parents blame teachers and schools for failing their children when they show little interest in educational outcomes.

Factor in so many public school teachers are not able to get full time work, which makes getting a housing loan difficult.

Directing more money to the private sector isn't going to make things better.

Unless we make teaching a rewarding and viable career for future generations we will keep on falling further and further down the ladder as those countries hungrier than us eat our lunch. I don't expect either side of politics to present the hard truth to us, but Abbott is the one who supposedly has that responsibility now but is, to use the Howard term, not showing much ticker at this point in time.
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IMO Teaching was a trade as was nursing, they both went down the toilet when the unions got involved and made them a university degree.
To teach requires an understanding and a passion, as does nursing, these are the least valued abilities in the current system.
What is required now is completion of year 12 and the entry mark is lowered to facilitate numbers required.
In years gone by, students who wished to become teachers applied for teachers training college, then were interviewed and assesed.
The new system encourages all year 12 students to select a career path, after they sit exams which rank their retained knowledge. Teaching and nursing are two of the lowest entry requirements.
Unfortunately you can't offer someone who is going to be teaching children known curriculum, the same monetary reward as someone developing and applying advanced theory.
This boils back to the basic problem of should they be a degree course in the first place?
I'm not talking about university lecturers or medical doctors, I'm talking primary and secondary teachers and nurses.

Our childrens results are falling at year 3, the times table and the alphabet hasn't changed much in the last 100 years. However now because we can't teach the times table, we drop it from the curriculum
 
sydboy007 said:
Pyne is probably the only person in parliament who would know, since the potted plant on his desk has been providing him with policy advise.
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Jeez Sid!

That's a nasty accusation.

I doubt very much that he's ever had Kate Ellis on his desk.
 
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