Julia Gillard

The most dispiriting intellectual spectacle of the past decade would have to be the so-called “history wars”, where academics, politicians and commentators on the extreme left and right battled for domination in telling the story of modern Australia.

The history wars were essentially an exercise both in understatement and overstatement. The right-wingers tried to pretend that Australian history was nothing other than a happy story involving the orderly and humane progression of European civilisation on these shores, where no indigenous children were ever stolen, no families ever broken up, and whatever dislocation or hardship Aborigines experienced was at worst an accident, brought about by the purest of motives.

The left-wingers retaliated by branding the conservatives as liars, and telling a version of Australian history which reads like a long string of human rights abuses, with repeated acts of savagery against a wholly peaceful indigenous populace.

Continue reading "Taking off the white blindfold and black armband" »

With all this public confessing, rending of garments and epiphanies going on you’d be forgiven for thinking Kevin Rudd had run screaming back into the arms of Catholicism.

The Prime Minister’s reversion was completed fittingly on the Sabbath yesterday on the high alter of Sunday morning politics, Insiders.

It’s a shrine he hasn’t visited for quite some time. Forgive me Barry for I have sinned, it’s been 21 months since my last appearance.

(Does anyone else think it’s a coincidence Rudd’s new-found martyrdom started simmering about the time the Pope confirmed the canonisation of Mary McKillop? Divine inspiration maybe?)

Continue reading "All this self-flagellation is making me queasy" »

I used to work in this pub in Wollongong where come Census time some of the regulars would scarper for the hills. I also remember a bus stop near where I grew up bearing the graffiti: “NO AUSTRALIA CARD” for most of the mid 80s, so I get there are people who are a little skeptical (read paranoid) about the Government knowing their business.

But I just heard the Punch’s Mark Kenny at the Press Club ask Julia Gillard about the “Orwellian” nature of the proposed new ID number for Australian school students Phil Coorey flagged in the Herald this morning.

The Opposition quickly jumped on the plan, with Tony Abbott today saying: I think that people have names and I think that it ought to be possible to identify people’s performance based on their names, based on who they are.”

Continue reading "Why do people get so worked up over ID numbers?" »

WHEN calls came in the lead-up to Australia Day to remove the British ensign from our flag, the idea was slapped down. Australians had fought and competed under this one, the Government said in an argument more often deployed by monarchists.

When the idea of putting the republic back on the agenda came up, this time from Attorney General Robert McClelland no less, it too got short shrift from the leadership when asked publicly. Perhaps this is unsurprising from the socially conservative Rudd Government. But the agent of both of these off the cuff rejections, was not Kevin Rudd, but rather, his deputy, the left-aligned, Julia Gillard.

There is a growing body of evidence that ``Red Julia’’ as some on the Right have derided her, has been busily repositioning herself to be in contention for the Labor leadership should Kevin Rudd’s star fade. I’ll come back to that shortly.

Continue reading "Red head to blue rinse, Gillard’s evolution" »

Deciding to take a peek at the My School website was a little like tuning in to Big Brother – I knew what I was about to see might alarm me, but I couldn’t help being drawn in for a little look.

And given the huge number of hits on the site over the last few weeks, there is no doubt that education – and the quality of education – is a huge issue, although I did wonder if they were all guilt ridden mothers like me who spend too much time on the net. 

Just like Big Brother, My School has proven a high rater on the shock factor. I saw schools extolled by Ministers as models of inspiration and hard work look like they’re failing.

Continue reading "My School is a stunt if it’s not backed by funding" »

In the mid 1990s the teachers credit union Satisfac came up with a kindly and seemingly innocent idea to celebrate the excellent work of its teacher members.

The credit union, which historically had served teachers but like many other institutions now has a wide customer base, decided that to recognise the role of the teaching profession in its own development it would establish an annual awards event called The Best Teacher Awards.

But when the awards were initially proposed the reaction from the teachers union was one of outrage and dismay. Satisfac was told in no uncertain terms to shelve the idea, with the union arguing it was the height of impertinence for a credit union – or anyone else for that matter – to declare that some teachers were better than others.

Continue reading "My School brawl exposes unions’ culture of mediocrity" »

The release of My School data as part of the Rudd Government’s ‘Education Revolution’ begs the question about a key issue in improving classroom performance – teacher standards and school-based professional culture.

We should pay teachers more and be seeking to attract more of our best young people into teaching. But we also need to address what is usually un-discussable industrially: poorly performing and unprofessional teachers in some schools.

When the Education Minister, Julia Gillard, reviews the data on classroom performance, more funding should not be the only response to target underperforming schools. Helping Principals shape high performance professional school culture will be just as important.

Continue reading "Why should teachers remain unaccountable?" »

Maybe it’s Tony Abbott’s own fault, and maybe he thinks it’s fantastic, but I’m a bit creeped out by the amount of attention being paid to the new Opposition Leader’s, um, assets.

Log on to any blog or social networking site in the past 36 hours and you’re likely to find as much in-depth analysis of Mr Abbott’s physical characteristics as his policy range. And I’m not talking about the size and shape of his ears.

While this might be a great boost to The Punch’s Question Time Live coverage - bring on the influx of stay-at-home-mums tuning into APAC at 2pm on sitting days - can you imagine what would happen if the same conversations were taking place about Julia Gillard?

Continue reading "Phwoar!!! Tony Abbott’s the full package. Wink wink." »

A funny thing happened on the way from the last week’s Principals Forum with Federal Education Minister Julia Gillard. 

Listening to subsequent media reports describing the National Conversation as a ‘firestorm’ and a ‘showdown’, I began to wonder whether I’d been at a different forum.

My role was as moderator. I did consider wearing a flak jacket.

Continue reading "Teachers are in the mood for seeing league tables" »

Deputy PM and Education Minister Julia Gillard joined us today on Punch TV on Sky News, discussing asylum seekers, school league tables, the economy and the next election. We also asked her about the tensions within the Left Faction over the future of frontbencher Laurie Ferguson whose seat has been abolished. Watch it here.

She might be the dux of the year, who’s given additional homework for extra credit, but the Deputy Prime Minister deserves detention this week for disrupting the rest of the class.

By being too smart for her own good, and too big for her own boots, Julia Gillard is the one responsible for Question Time this week descending into what’s been widely regarded as a farce.

And if the Opposition have seemed a little hysterical, it’s because Gillard took the ball and refused to give it back.

Don’t miss Punch TV at 12.30pm today on Sky News. The Punch team will be discussing parliament with Housing Minister Tanya Plibersek.

Continue reading "Julia broke Question Time" »

Five years ago, Glen Viegas cut into a live wire as he worked on the construction of a shopping centre on the NSW Central Coast. That wire should have been disconnected. But it wasn’t. Glen was killed, and an hour and a half later, his wife Andreia had to pull back a white hospital sheet to identify her husband’s body.

Next time you see burly construction workers marching in a protest, consider stories like Andreia’s, and the fact that on average, one construction worker dies from work every week.

The experience of Andreia, and others like her, is what motivates trade unionists when we push for the best possible health and safety laws.

Continue reading "Unions turn on Gillard over worker safety" »

Over the last couple of weeks the Deputy Prime Minister has been plugging two developing holes in a massive dam wall.

The first has been caused by the waste and mismanagement associated with the Julia Gillard memorial halls debacle. A programme wasting so much money that a school in Sydney is going to refuse free money.

The second hole in the dam wall is growing quickly and relates to her changes to the industrial award system and her promise that neither workers nor small business would be worse off with her changes to the industrial award system.  A promise she knew couldn’t be kept.

Continue reading "Julia: full-time worker or part time spinner?" »

Julia Gillard’s week got a lot better just before lunch time yesterday with the announcement the latest jobs figures had held steady.

The general consensus was the data saved her from the hammering she’s been getting in Question Time over the dodgy mess the administration of the Building the Education Revolution plan has turned out to be.

And yes our jobless figures look pretty flash compared with the rest of the world. But the Government shouldn’t be jumping up and down just yet - and to her credit Gillard resisted the urge.

Continue reading "As good news goes, the jobs figures were luke warm" »

Drifiting off during Question Time yesterday it was tempting to wonder what Evesham State School looked like and what its one student might do with a $250,000 library all to herself.

What if the one student at this school is some kind of genius who needs to read 35 books each afternoon Good Will Hunting style?

Well, after contacting Evesham State School in remote central Queensland it turns out it hasn’t received a cent of the fabled $250,000 and, according to its principal and teacher, it won’t receive any of it.

Continue reading "The one-pupil school isn’t getting any money after all" »

Yesterday saw a pretty poor parliamentary performance from the person widely regarded as the best performer in the Government.

Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard was tickled up by the opposition on a range of Government pressure points - importantly the question of misdirected stimulus spending, whether the signage at schools benefiting from the plan amounts to advertising and its promise that nobody would be worse off under new IR awards.

Of course the star performer isn’t just deputy Prime Minister, she’s Education Minister, Minister for Employment Workplace Relations minister and Social Inclusion Minister. And this is the point: Education and IR and the two portfolios that are right at the pointy end of policy and politics and the moment and it’s fair to ask whether the pressure of this super-portfolio is starting to get to Gillard.

Continue reading "Is Gillard starting to buckle under the pressure?" »

One of the great benefits of representing a regional electorate is the opportunity to attend many local shows. 

Whether it is Mount Barker, Mount Pleasant, Strathalbyn or Kangaroo Island – shows represent what is great about regional Australia – although you can take or leave the Dagwood Dogs.

But there is a danger lurking for these regional celebrations in the form of yet another bungled Rudd Government “reform”, a danger that threatens the very survival of the small regional shows.

Continue reading "Your local country show is under threat" »

POLITICAL dropout Peter Costello is unlikely to have spent even a minute watching A-Pac’s live feed of this mundane ALP national conference. There’s every chance the footy-mad ex-treasurer is mooching around the house in his black and red tracky dacks watching Essendon tapes, his mind focussed on tomorrow’s do-or-die clash with West Coast as the Bombers try to keep their spot in the eight.

Had he tuned into proceedings from Darling Harbour, John Howard’s perpetual political bridesmaid would probably have had a bit of a knowing grin at watching Julia Gillard make her own transformation to the position he held for so long - warm-up act to a bloke who has no real intention of ever leaving the prime ministership.

Costello has spoken about the sense of tedium and frustration which accompanied his bib-and-bub act with John Howard at the annual Liberal Party conventions.

Continue reading "Julia is looking more and more like a future leader" »

Kevin Rudd needs more Pink Floyd.  The Floyd’s classic lyrics from The Wall album denigrate the standard of teachers and curriculum as “just another brick in the wall”.

I’m sure David Gilmour, Roger Waters and other band members would be amazed to learn that thirty years later Australia is attempting an Education Revolution based wholly on bricks in the wall.  Okay, maybe I oversimplify it.  It’s not just bricks, there’s a range of other building products going into Kevin and Julia’s fabulously named ‘Building the Education Revolution’ program.

Now I don’t mean to overload on dark sarcasm.  But isn’t an education revolution far more than bricks and mortar?  How about first class curriculum?  Higher teacher standards?  Modern learning tools?  Smaller class sizes?  Advancing both the vocational and the academic?

Or, how about a controversial three C’s for our education system – competition, choice and control?  These factors, which can empower families, parents and students while encouraging excellence from teachers and schools, seem to be sorely lacking in any current revolutionary discussions.

Continue reading "Viva the voucher based education revolution" »

Parliamentary question time, at least for politics tragics, used to be the best free entertainment around. The galleries would be packed with the political version of football fans eager to see their favourite players in full flight.

The public started to lose interest not long after the Rudd government came to power. Now even the press gallery is almost deserted half way through question time. On Tuesday, a viewing area that seats over 100 held just 12 journalists at 3pm. The forty or so who’d watched the start of proceedings had mostly drifted away as ministers bored relentlessly through just 12 answers in an hour.

What’s happened since the glory days of Paul Keating and Peter Costello?

Continue reading "Mathematical proof that Rudd is a toxic bore" »

So the ability for Union reps to get into state schools depends on them being invited in by the school principal- who, in most cases is going to be a paid up member of one of the most militant unions, the Teachers Federation. That should ensure access. There should be no place in education for propaganda!

Julia Gillard feigns a fight with Trade Unions at their annual conference but gives her blessing to the indoctrination of school students 14 years and up. Funny thing –those who are 17 years now will be voters in the next Federal and State elections and the Labor Party affiliated unions will be in the school with the imprimatur of officialdom drumming up support for themselves and Labor candidates.

To use a Ruddism ‘fair shake of the sauce bottle’ –I think the Liberals need equal access to at least balance the message.

Continue reading "Will the real Julia Gillard please stand up" »

HE may have strangled the Aussie language but Kevin Rudd remains an overwhelming favourite with punters according to the poll that really matters - the Press Gallery Mid Winter Ball eBay auction.

The Prime Minister and his would-be assassin, Malcolm Turnbull, along with the globe-trotting Julia Gillard, have “donated” themselves as part of the Ball’s efforts to raise funds for a raft of charities.

Just over 48 hours before Canberra’s night of nights, the PM holds a handy lead over his two"rivals” - with a mystery punter bidding over $15,000 to have dinner with the country’s leader.

Continue reading "Mystery bidder leads race to dinner with the PM" »

Whilst becoming a journalist holds as much interest to me as being a Liberal MP does for Laura Tingle, I find a great deal of attraction in using my inaugural contribution to thepunch.com.au to make some predictions for the next 12 months in Australian politics.

The golden rule for an MP is not to become a political commentator, and long term predictions in politics are a dangerous business. 

This high risk indulgence is completely irresistible to our competitive friends in the Canberra Press Gallery.  Often they will be based around election timing, leadership and of course who will win the next election.

Continue reading "Libs will win, Rudd will quit, and Gillard will lead" »

The improbably named Ark Tribe is on the verge of creating the first real schism between the Rudd Government and the union movement.

The knockabout building worker is in court in Adelaide today facing charges of refusing to answer questions to the Australian Building and Construction Commission, a charge that carries a maximum penalty of six months jail.

If convicted, Tribe will become the first trade unionist to be jailed since the 1960s. when Clarrie O’Shea was locked up for refusing to disclose internal union documents, sparking a general strike.

Continue reading "Tribal war between Gillard and the union movement" »