Australian Politics
Australian Education Union boycotts reforms to help children learn
The Australian Education Union (AEU) has slapped work bans on teaching reforms designed to help children learn, in an ugly funding fight with the Albanese government.
AEU president Correna Haythorpe said the union had placed “an immediate ban on the implementation of the Better and Fairer Schools Agreement’’.
The ban would stop teachers from switching to evidence-based teaching techniques, such as the use of phonics to help children learn to read by sounding out the letters of words.
The union’s Victorian branch tried to boycott phonics-based instruction when it was mandated by Victorian Education Minister Ben Carroll this year, leading to a revolt against the union from some classroom teachers.
Ms Haythorpe said the ban would stay in place until all schools receive 100 per cent of the Schooling Resource Standard (SRS) – better known as the needs-based “Gonski funding’’ that business leader David Gonski recommended 13 years ago.
“In public schools today, we have chronic funding shortfalls, workforce shortages, increased workloads and student who need extra learning support,’’ Ms Haythorpe said.
“The failure to fund our schools properly impacts deeply on the teaching and learning conditions for teachers, education support staff and for students.’’
Federal Education Minister Jason Clare has offered to give the states and territories an extra $16bn in extra funding for public schools over the next decade.
This would increase the commonwealth’s share of public school funding from 20 per cent to 22.5 per cent.
The money is conditional upon states and territories introducing evidence-based teaching reforms, such as the use of phonics-based reading methods, explicit instruction techniques, and reducing truancy and dropout rates.
Western Australia and Tasmania are the only states to have signed up to the deal, as the rest are demanding Mr Clare double the money and pay 25 per cent of public schooling costs.
The Northern Territory signed the reform deal after the federal government doubled its funding stake to 40 per cent, in recognition of the cost of teaching large numbers of disadvantaged students living in remote Aboriginal communities.
Ms Haythorpe said the reforms would increase teacher workloads.
“The Albanese government cannot implement reforms without providing proper funding to pay for them,’’ she said.
“If (the agreement) is implemented without the full resources needed for public schools, it will increase the workload of the already stretched teaching profession.’’
The union is also demanding that governments halve the length of the 10-year agreement to five years.
Mr Clare has been contacted for comment.
The work ban was dictated by the AEU executive, without going to a vote of member teachers.
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‘Professional protester’: NSW Premier hits out at Marxist serial activist
Police could soon have the power to reject protests that stretch over months, as a clearly frustrated NSW Premier Chris Minns decried the more than $5m spent on controlling pro-Palestine rallies and attacked the leader of the protest movement as a “professional demonstrator”.
The move came after hundreds of police were deployed at rallies and vigils in Sydney on Sunday and Monday on the anniversary of the October 7 Hamas atrocities in Israel.
The protests were largely peaceful after police issued strong warnings not to bring the flag of the Hezbollah terrorist group, but two men were arrested for displaying swastikas superimposed on the Israeli flag.
“The cost is huge … so I’m going to have a review into the resourcing that police put into these marches, and it’s my view that police should be able to deny a request for a march due to stretched police resourcing,” he said.
Police were burnt out and tired, he added, and other important work had had to be sidelined.
“I think taxpayers should be in a position to say we would prefer that money spent on roadside breath testing, domestic violence investigations, knife crimes, rather than the huge resources that’s going into the city and the community.”
“Our resources are being stretched; it costs millions of dollars to police and marshal these protests and it’s completely reasonable for the police to take that into consideration when Form 1 applications are lodged with the courts,” Mr Minns said.
“Ultimately, this is a huge drain on the public purse”.
The Premier hit out at Josh Lees, a leading member of the Palestine Action Group who has lodged weekly applications for the past year to march in Sydney since the October 7 Hamas atrocities in Israel, agreeing with the description of the activist as a “professional protester”.
Mr Lees writes for Red Flag, the outlet of Socialist Alternative, which declares itself “Australia’s largest Marxist group”, and regularly calls for the overthrow of capitalism.
He was also a leader of the Lockdown to Zero movement, demanding that the then- Berejiklian government maintain strict Covid-19 lockdowns and branding the loosening of restrictions as “an offensive against the working class” by “the rich and powerful”.
Mr Lees has also been spokesperson for the Refugee Action Coalition, organising protests at the 2011 ALP National Conference against then-prime minister Julia Gillard’s asylum-seeker policies.
The former University of Sydney tutor was arrested during the “Occupy Sydney” movement that camped outside the Reserve Bank in Martin Place in 2011, clashing with police during a Hyde Park rally and at the Martin Place encampment.
After police broke up the protest, Mr Lees claimed police brutality. “I woke to see about 200 riot police surrounding our protest camp … physically removing people, using painful wrist-locks, and occasionally throwing punches, one of which left a protester in front of me bleeding”, he said. Charges against Mr Lees and other protesters were later dropped.
Mr Minns emphasised he was not seeking changes that would affect union protests or industrial disputes, but police should be in a position to deny repeat applications for marches through Sydney if they didn’t have the resources to deal with it.
“If you were putting on a rock concert on the weekend, you would have to pay NSW police to keep the public safe – this all comes from NSW taxpayers’ back pockets.”
NSW Opposition Leader Mark Speakman called on Mr Minns to immediately implement a user-pays system for serial protesters, with a general rule against authorisation if organisers of repeat protests failed to meet the costs.
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Put Greens last: peak Jewish groups demand major parties agree to preferences swap
Two of the nation’s peak Jewish groups have taken the unprecedented step of seeking to influence the make-up of the future parliament by writing to Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton, urging the major parties to preference each other above the Greens at the next election.
The letter sent on Tuesday morning by the Executive Council of Australian Jewry and the Zionist Federation of Australia also seeks a public commitment from both the Prime Minister and Opposition Leader that they will not allow the Greens to play any role in a potential minority government or make concessions to them in return for Greens support on confidence and supply.
Separate versions of the letter have also been sent to the five recontesting teal MPs – Allegra Spender, Kate Chaney, Monique Ryan, Sophie Scamps and Zoe Daniel – urging them not to form a negotiating bloc with the Greens in the event of a hung parliament.
Signed by ZFA president Jeremy Leibler and ECAJ president Daniel Aghion, the letter to the major party leaders says there is a precedent for such a step given Labor and Liberals “committed to preference One Nation last on multiple occasions, including by former prime minister Scott Morrison at the 2019 federal election.”
The letter sparked a ferocious response from Greens leader Adam Bandt who warned Labor that preferencing the Liberals above the minor party would devastate the ALP primary vote and trigger an exodus in support.
“Voters will desert them,” Mr Bandt told The Australian.
The letter urges Mr Albanese and Mr Dutton to work together to “counteract the shameful and cynical behaviour of the Greens” over the past 12 months, accusing the minor party of seeking “political gains by exploiting intercommunity tensions that have been heightened by overseas conflicts, without regard for the social consequences”.
Mr Leibler and Mr Aghion warn in the letter that the Greens have undermined social cohesion and “threaten the foundations of our freedoms and democracy”.
“The Greens have knowingly spread outright falsehoods, including the monstrous lie that this government is complicit in genocide,” the letter says. “In doing so, the Greens have joined forces with and incited political and religious extremists who have at times engaged in violence.”
“We are writing to each of you to make a public commitment that you will not permit the Greens to play any role in a potential minority government,” the letter says. “We are also writing to seek a public commitment from each of your parties to preference each other above the Greens.”
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Why the word 'boomer' could soon be banned in this Aussie state
The Western Australian government wants to ban terms such as 'boomer' and 'millennial' because they claim it creates division between different generations.
The move is part of a 'Challenge Your Bias' project launched by the Cook Labor government on Tuesday to tackle ageism with a guide booklet calling for the end of proverbs such as 'over the hill' and 'you can't teach an old dog new tricks'.
A $400,000 two-year education campaign will seek to 'raise awareness of ageism, and its impacts on a person', according to the campaign's website produced by the Department of Communities.
'Terms that separate generations such as boomer, generation X, or millennial are unhelpful as they create conflict between age groups and can cause unnecessary tension,' the booklet, titled A Guide to Inclusive Language and Images, states.
'These generalisations are not scientifically defined, don't have consistent names and are best avoided.'
The seven-page guide also also said that generalisations about age groups are harmful.
'It is common to use generalisations and make assumptions to describe older people as a singular group,' it states.
'This negative stereotyping takes away the individuality of people.'
People are advised to avoid terms such as ‘facility’, ‘institution’, ‘nursing home’ or ‘old people’s home’ when talking about the places where older people (defined as those over 65 and 55 for Indigenous people by the guide) live out their last years.
To use such terms 'reduces their living environment to be clinical sounding or a place for a person to be forgotten about,' the guide advises
'Terms such as ‘aged care home’, ‘residential aged care’ and ‘assisted home living’ provides a respectful description of an older person’s living arrangements.'
WA Seniors and Ageing Minister Don Punch said the guide outlined 'how images, phrases, and words can better portray older people.'
'Western Australians are living longer than ever before, with older people projected to make up one-quarter of our population by 2071,' he told the West Australian.
'Raising awareness of ageist attitudes and language, and being mindful of how older people are perceived, can positively influence our behaviour and attitudes towards older people.
'The aim is to rethink how ageing and older people are described and represented in the media, in organisations, and everyday life, and to consider alternatives.'
Ageism is defined by the guide as 'how we think (stereotypes), how we feel (prejudice), and how we act (discrimination) towards people based on their age'.
'While reading this language guide, you may recognise some of the ways language and associated behaviours can be ageist and may find you have said these things yourself,' the guide advises.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13939251/Why-word-boomer-soon-banned-Aussie-state.html
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Evelyn Rae, a conservative Australian political commentator
My son Joe at ANU
One of the happiest pictures ever -- Cleo Smith, aged 4
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