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News | Commentary | Analysis
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A collage of Coalition policies
8 September 2013 | This wasn’t an election in which education was a key issue and tertiary education hardly figured at all. Here’s a collage of Scan articles over the past year or so touching on the Coalition’s approach to tertiary education, which provide assort of compass to the horizon….[ READ MORE ]….
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The aftermath
Sector responses to new government
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Abbott urged to put learning first
Australian university vice-chancellors, as well as lobby groups for the schools and TAFE sectors, have called on newly-elected Prime Minister Tony Abbott to focus strongly on education. Among the policies announced during the election campaign were a New Colombo Plan to boost foreign study in Asia, a review of the national schools curriculum, a greater emphasis on science and languages in teaching and research, and maintaining the increased funding promised by the previous government under the Better Schools scheme. The latter however will apply only for four years rather than six….[ READ MORE ]…..
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Why open access to universities works and should be left alone
13 August 2013 | Current higher education minister Kim Carr was “umming and aahing” about the future of the uncapped, demand driven system ahead of the election but the politicians from the two major parties aren’t saying anything much now. You can bet that, come 8 September, however, whichever party wins government, in the context of a ballooning Budget deficit , reintroducing caps will be seen as a relatively savings “get” of perhaps $300 million a year. Andrew Norton of the Grattan Institute is mounting an almost single person rearguard fight in defence of the demand driven system, which he says is efficient, equitable and encouraging a more diverse and innovative sector. Dumping it would be a serious policy blunder…..[ READ MORE ]…..
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Claiming that university classes have almost doubled in size, the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) began its Vote Smart advertising campaign on 12 August.
The TV advertisements call for a Green vote in the Senate and will air in Perth, Adelaide, northern Tasmania and regional Queensland – Rockhampton, Townsville and Cairns…..[ READ MORE ]…..
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What really matters in education
There’s been a lot of discussion about how much money is needed in schools, but very little about how those funds should be administered, teacher standards or student outcomes. In this video, former ABC journalist and Rudd Government Parliamentary Secretary Maxine McKew talks to education analyst Professor John Hattie about the issues that are missing from current discourse. (Click here to read a transcript of their discussion)
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Campaign notes: week 3
The debate we had to have….Rudd is a prolix nasty pasty….Bromide Tony….The elephant in the room….Coalition leads some more
25 August 2013 | Perhaps the dullest election campaign in living memory (2010 was at least “enlivened” by the ant-Gillard leaks) got a bit of a zip with the “town hall forum” featuring Kevin Rudd and Tony Abbott and 105 “undecided” voters. They were able to throw questions at each other and field questions from the audience, much in the style of the ABC’s Q&A (older people may recall that Q&A owes much to the 1970s program Monday Conference).
In terms of presentation, most commentators gave the points decisively to Rudd, although the audience scored it about even – 37 to Abbott, 35 to Rudd, which leaves 33 undecided or unimpressed.
But it was altogether symptomatic of this election that the two stories that dominated all forms of media in the aftermath were actually non-stories.
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Campaign notes: week 2
Dead cat bounce….campaign tensions….Tony’s wacky sense of humour….maybe not that hard being Green….Professor Palmer….Coalition leads
18 August 2013 | Opinion polls show that the Coalition is on track to a decisive election victory. It’s clear that the resurgence in the ALP polling following Kevin Rudd’s resumption of the prime ministership wasn’t so much a honeymoon as “dead cat bounce”.
Rudd’s dead cat bounce seems, at this stage, somewhat more prospective in terms of the likely post-election headcount than Julia Gillard’s drowning duck. Under Gillard, Labor was looking at a head count in the low 40s, at best. Under Rudd, barring a late collapse in support (the ALP’s weakening position in the opinion polls has been drift rather than collapse), the head count will be more likely in the 50s. That gives an Abbott government a 20 seat plus majority, of course, but the hard heads in the ALP always knew that Rudd’s resurrection was about saving the furniture, so that the ALP in opposition remains a competitive alternative government……[ READ MORE ]…..
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The first week
Jesus was a Jew…got to stop the boats – somehow or other…News Corp’s wicked sense of humour….Coalition leads
10 August 2013 | In many respects, the first week of the 2013 Federal election campaign was more comedic than substantial….[ READ MORE ]…..
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Election 2013: Policy & Politics
4 August 2013 | With the 2013 Federal Election now set for Saturday 7 September 2013, The Scan will be highlighting policy announcements and debate relevant to the tertiary sector. Just as in 2010, we don’t expect there will be a lot….[ READ MORE ]…..
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Election Watch
Election Watch brings together the University of Melbourne’s political academics and policy analysts to provide rigorous analysis and expert commentary on the Australian election campaign.
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NTEU class sizes claim adds up: ABC
An advertisement by the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) says there are almost twice as many university students per teacher now than a generation ago.
“In just one generation university class sizes have almost doubled due to chronic underfunding,” the union ad claims.
ABC’s Fact Check has analysed the claim and concluded:
There were 13 students for every teacher in 1990. The number rose to 19 in 2000 and 24 in 2012. The claim is therefore correct.
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What the sector is asking for
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UA policy statement
Towards a smarter Australia
Universities Australia’s first comprehensive policy manifesto calls for a “partnership between the university sector and the next government” – of whatever hue – to establish a practical and pragmatic policy framework around five key actions.
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Regional Universities Australia Policy Statement
Smarter Regions, Smarter Australia
Regional Universities Network policy statement details a variety of ways in which government can unlock the full human potential of regional Australia.
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TDA Policy Statement
Unleashing our Potential
Unleashing our Potential is TAFE Directors Australia’s key theme of its Federal election 2013 policy, focussing on funding reform, pathways and Commonwealth engagement with the TAFE sector.
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ACPET Policy Statement
Creating a level playing field
ACPET’s election statements for the international, VET and higher education sectors spell out the contributions made by private providers and the urgent need for a level playing field between university providers and non-university providers.
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What the parties are promising
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Trades Training Centres
The Rudd Labor Government has announced $209.8 million to build 137 new Trades Training Centres, benefitting 225 schools across the country…..[READ MORE] …..
Manufacturing Skills Plus
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has announced Manufacturing Skills Plus, a $35 million initiative to provide 6,800 new training places to up-skill workers and help them make the transition to higher paying high tech manufacturing jobs…… [READ MORE] …..
“Step into skills”
Kevin Rudd has unveiled a $35 million plan to help young, disadvantaged job seekers become more employable. The Step into Skills program will help about 9,000 job seekers before they undertake vocational training….. [READ MORE] …..
$8m for regional medical internships
The health minister Tanya Plibersek says a re-elected ALP government will spend $8 million to increase the number of medical internships in rural areas, to help tackle a shortage of doctors in the bush. The money will be allocated to private hospitals and create positions for overseas-born medical students who train in Australia…… [READ MORE] …..
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Protect and streamline health and medical research funding
The Coalition says it will protect the future funding of health and medical research in Australia and simplify and streamline the medical research grant making process….. [READ MORE] …..
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Greens: “make TAFE a priority”
The Greens are calling for the mining tax to be amended to give the TAFE system an extra $1.2 billion. Deputy Greens leader Adam Bandt says the Federal Government has forced TAFE to compete with private providers resulting in campus closures, rising fees and job losses. The rescue package would inject $400 million per year for TAFE starting from July 2014….. [READ MORE] …..
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Election 2013
This is a fine bit of writing on the “optics” of the election campaign by Hamish Boland-Rudder of the Canberra Times. It’s been republished in other Fairfax Media newspapers and picked up by the ABC’s Gruen Nation.
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Reflecting on a presidential image
President Jed Bartlett slides softly into a plush Air Force One seat beside his wife, Abbey, who asks him, “What are you thinking about?”
“Tomorrow,” he says, staring pensively out the plane window with the light slowly moving across his face.
For anyone familiar with political drama of the highest order, this is instantly recognisable as the last scene of fictional US television show The West Wing. But even for those not in the know, it feels like a familiar scene – much like an image at the end of a new Liberal Party campaign ad.
The Liberal ad, titled New Hope, comes to an end with a powerful still of a thoughtful Tony Abbott staring pensively out a plane window, perhaps thinking about Australia’s tomorrow.
The photo itself is an editorial image, taken by Fairfax photographer Jason South during the 2010 election campaign, and sold to the Liberal Party for commercial use by the Fairfax Syndication service.
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Election 2013
A crock….?
22 August 2013 | The Australian Financial Review’s incomparable David Rowe captures the general reaction to the Coalition’s paid maternity leave scheme, which has been described as bad policy, inequitable and extravagant.
