Page 4253 - Week 11 - Thursday, 17 Sept 2009
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Yesterday in this place we heard motherhood statements from the shadow minister for education about how he wants to see better quality teachers in ACT public schools and how he supports our teachers. Unfortunately, this edition, written, no doubt, by a rising star of the “tiny tories”, gives us an insight into what the opposition may mean by quality teaching.
On page 8, under the heading “Make education fair” it states:
… bias in our high schools and university campuses has reached epidemic proportions …
The article calls on young Liberals to dob in a teacher. That is the thrust of the ACT Young Liberal Movement. The onus falls on young Liberals to compile a list of examples. Big Brother—or little brother—is watching; dob in our teachers.
Today when I was driving to work I thought that I would I need to find out a little bit more about this intriguing campaign. Is it a kind of elaborate joke? Are there actually members of the Liberal Party with a sense of humour that goes beyond Facebook slander, or have I accidentally stepped back into the McCarthy era? So I Googled this make education fair campaign and discovered that the Liberals have a whole website about it, a dob in the teacher website. I am proud to announce that the Liberals do actually have a policy. I am not quite sure what it is, other than to dob in a teacher.
I tried to click on the evidence button. It spun me in circles, but I was able to find one example, and I will share that with you. It reads:
I am a year twelve student and have always been educated in the Public Education system. Since year ten … in geography about the need to sign Kyoto and the ramifications of not signing to the use of Workchoices in legal studies as an example of legislation promoting inequality.
What outrageous accusations those are! A teacher who thinks signing an international agreement to reduce climate change is a good thing. How horrid! How horrid to think that we would do that. What about a negative comment on Work Choices? How unrepresentative! Goodness me. Let us look back to 2007 and see what the Australian community thought of Work Choices. I think it is clear what they thought of Work Choices—they threw it out.
The question for Mr Doszpot is just how he defines a quality teacher. What does he adhere to? I just see this as a thinly disguised code by the federal Liberal leader to reintroduce Work Choices. I see from this evidence that their policy is to teach Liberal Party doctrine or you will be out on your ear. Dob in a teacher is the policy for ACT Young Liberals. They do not support public school teachers in the ACT. How could they if all they want to do is dob them in? Their own publication makes it clear that an ACT Liberal government—heaven forbid that they become a government—would be a danger to every ACT student.
Young Achievement Australia
MR COE (Ginninderra) (6.12): Young Achievement Australia, or YAA, is an organisation founded in 1977 devoted to developing the potential of young
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