Page 3485 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 18 August 2010
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millions of dollars as a result of the policy. The Melbourne Director of Catholic Education, Stephen Elder, wrote last week that Greens policies would “force school closures, increase fees and change the ability of Catholic schools to be genuinely Catholic”. I will just repeat that. Stephen Elder, the Director of Catholic Education in Melbourne, wrote last week that Greens policies would “force school closures, increase fees and change the ability of Catholic schools to be genuinely Catholic”. The report of his comments went on:
This meant a “much diminished” ability to help the poor and the marginalised and to serve the neediest students, he said.
“Cuts would likely flow through to cuts to our current programs, to recent arrivals and refugees in Catholic schools … We estimate the Greens funding policy would cut $427 million from Catholic schools including more than $110 million taken from Victorian Catholic schools …”
The Greens’ hostility to the non-government sector needs to be noted. We also need to consider the position of the Labor Party in this. We have the prospect of a returned Gillard government—this election is very close; we do not know which way it will go—and potentially a Greens balance of power.
What does the Labor Party think of non-government schools? Well, they are not very favourably disposed to them either. In 2004 Mark Latham attacked the non-government sector, egged on by Julia Gillard. Julia Gillard was his closest ally in the Labor Party at that time; she egged him on—Medicare gold and cutting funding to non-government schools. So you would have Julia Gillard as Prime Minister, who already has a hostility to the non-government sector, and the Greens’ stated policy of slashing funding to non-government schools.
What will that mean for Canberra families? It will mean higher school fees and less choice for Canberra families. It will mean that the unique nature of non-government schools in the territory will be compromised. That is what the Catholic Education Office says. That is what the Greens’ policy would do.
You have to ask the question: why are the Greens so anti non-government education? We happen to believe that both the government sector and the non-government sector should thrive, that Canberra families and families right around the nation should have choice in education. That is why we promised lower class sizes in the government sector—because we believe we can do better in our government sector.
But why does it have to come, according to the Greens and in some cases the Labor Party, at the expense of the non-government sector? We actually believe that the non-government sector adds value. It not only adds choice; it actually saves the taxpayer when parents choose to stump up some of the costs of education themselves. Why should they be denied that choice? Why should we make that choice harder for them? Why should we discriminate against those families? That is what this policy would do.
The Liberal Party, both nationally and locally, takes a very different view. First and foremost, we support educational choice. We do not support the Greens’ plan to slash
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