Saturday, 30 April 2016
Quotes of the Week
the [Westpac- Melbourne Institute Leading] Index last took a dip during the Global Financial Crisis in 2008, but then recovered shortly thereafter. However, despite the LNP’s claims to be economic masters, since they took office in September 2013, the Index has been steadily trending downwards to its current record low. [Progressive Conversation blog, 23 April 2016]
Not a jot of cosmic humility, religious or otherwise, is detectable in anything I have read or heard Abbott write or say. He doesn’t speak in these terms, even obliquely; I wonder if he fears death. It’s this, I think, that people find weirdest about him: how can you trust the judgement of a man so utterly immune to the animating psychic horrors of the human condition? As the woman from the focus group pointed out, everything he says is tainted, even his experience of something as quotidian as the weather. Abbott contains an absence, a conspicuous and upsetting lack, and as long as he hangs around Australian politics, he’s going to make us all stare straight into the void. [Freelance journalist Eleanor Robertson writing in The Monthly, 28 April 2016]
Friday, 29 April 2016
Disgraced Liberal MP blots his copy book again and another Liberal minister is found wanting
This was disgraced Liberal MP for Fadden, former Minister for Veterans' Affairs and former Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Centenary of ANZAC, Stuart Robert, tweeting on ANZAC Day 2016 and then deleting the tweet around three hours later once he finally realised that using soldiers to play politics on the major national day of remembrance in this country was not a good idea.
As New Matilda editorialized online; Yes, At the going down of the sun over our multiple investment properties, We will remember them.
To make matters worse Robert tweeted an apology at 1.17pm the same day and then deleted that eight minutes later - probably after the first journalist rang him to confirm the apology.
He then had second thoughts and tweeted his lame excuse again.
Oh dear.....with friends like Stuart Robert in an election year, Malcolm Turnbull doesn't need enemies.
However, Robert is not the only fly in the election ointment.
On 26 April 2016 ABC News reported on Country Liberal Party Senator for the Northern Territory and Minister for Indigenous Affairs, Nigel Scullion:
However, Robert is not the only fly in the election ointment.
On 26 April 2016 ABC News reported on Country Liberal Party Senator for the Northern Territory and Minister for Indigenous Affairs, Nigel Scullion:
Indigenous Affairs
Minister Nigel Scullion has asked the board of the Indigenous Land Corporation
(ILC) to change a controversial section of its annual report that dealt with
the corporation's $320 million acquisition of the troubled
Voyages resort at Uluru.
The extraordinary
intervention is revealed in documents released under Freedom of Information
(FOI) amid an ongoing battle between Senator Scullion and the former chair of
the ILC, Dawn Casey…..
A draft briefing paper
by acting ILC chief executive Leo Bator and released under FOI asserts that
Senator Scullion threatened to "withhold permission to table the (annual
report)" unless it was amended.
The annual report's
publication was delayed by months as a result of the conflict, and appears only
to have been published in February following media inquiries.
The delay in its
publication prevented Senate Estimates from examining the Voyages acquisition
last October.
The documents released
by the ILC under FOI reveal the current board of the ILC, and senior members of
its executive, were deeply concerned at the request by Senator Scullion for amendments
to the foreword and by the delay in the report's publication.
The ILC director of
strategy warned last year that the agency would "attract scrutiny about
the delay and any deletions to the annual report" at Senate Estimates.
In the end, the board
decided to publish two forewords to the report, one written by Dr Casey and one
by Eddie Fry, who was revealed to have assured Senator Scullion that the ILC
would pursue no investigation into the Voyages sale and instead was intent upon
tackling its large debts.
Senator Scullion has
insisted his intervention was in response to incorrect information being
asserted by the former ILC board about the Voyages acquisition. He declined to
speak to the ABC yesterday and referred to his published statement.
"What I did was ask
the ILC board to consider responding to factual inaccuracies in the statement
from the former chair contained in the annual report," Senator Scullion
said in the statement.
"It is completely
appropriate for me to bring to the attention of the ILC board these
inaccuracies."
Excerpts from
Dr. Dawn Casey’s statement which was included
in the published ILC
2014-15 annual report in question:
Report card on the Nationals 2013 election promises as set out by Kevin Hogan, MP for Page during that election campaign
Excerpts from Kevin Hogan's 2013 election campaign website with annotations in blue text:
The Nationals have a plan to reduce the cost of living by:
* abolishing the carbon and mining taxes; Done.
* lowering taxes and reforming the tax system; Not
done to date with regard to tax system reform. As for lowering taxes: As est. 70% of all incorporated businesses do not pay the full company tax rate. So it was no surprise to find that the Abbott Government's cut in the small business tax rate of 1.5 per cent, along with the
ability for companies with revenue under $2 million to claim an
unlimited number of tax deductions for items that cost less than $20,000
each, is only thought to have contributed to a brief two-month surge in retail goods and cars sales as an est. 30.8% of business owners splurged, according to the CPA Australia
Asia-Pacific Small Business Survey 2015 - presumably for the deductions against future tax liability. While neither the Liberal-Nationals tax increases via the Temporary Budget Repair Levy nor the reintroduction of the twice-yearly indexation of the fuel excise contributed to the promise to lower taxes. Indeed, since the Liberal-Nationals Coalition won government in September 2013 federal taxation has increased from 21.5% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to an est. 22.3% of GDP in 2015-16 according to Budget Paper 1 for 2015-16.
* restoring the private health insurance rebate; This
rebate was never abolished but became means tested in 2012 with thresholds increased annually and, it remains means tested to date.
*making childcare more affordable and flexible; Not actually done to date, with out-of-pocket childcare costs continuing to rise, with low-income families having to find an est. $700pa per child according to The Conversation Fact Check in March 2016. Flexibility is still a work in progress with the principal thrust being allowing private nannies to be registered childcare providers.
* protecting and strengthening Medicare; Not done to date. In June 2014 Kevin Hogan spoke in favour of weakening Medicare by creating a Medicare patient co-payment, which has since been shifted to a reduction in the Medicare rebate received by GPs. In July 2014 he voted in favour of increasing the price of subsidized medicines by increasing the concessional co-payment. and
* paying back government debt to keep interest
rates low. Federal Government net debt is higher now than when Kevin Hogan entered parliament. In September 2013 net government debt stood at $174,577 million and in March 2016 net debt totaled $288,681 million, with net financial liabilities of $518,013 million according to Dept. of Finance figures. In Nov-Dec 2013 he first voted to increase the amount of money government could borrow to $500 billion and then voted to remove the debt ceiling entirely. In spite of higher government debt and a budget deficit in excess of $35 billion in 2015-16, the Reserve Bank has kept the official interest rate at 2% during 2016.
Local
families deserve some breathing room between weekly pay cheques. Under a
Liberal and Nationals government hard-working families will be able to enjoy
more rewards for their efforts. Low wages growth continues to date. According to the NSW Dept. of
Family & Community Services,
with the exception of Ballina and Byron, all North Coast local government areas had a higher proportion of low income households at the
2011 Census than the NSW average (47.3%), with high rates of both very low and low income households in rental stress in the region. Yet
I never heard Kevin Hogan speak out against his government’s December 2014 announcement that it was abolishing the $21.13 million Housing and Homelessness
Grants program, part of which funds three national peak bodies; Homelessness
Australia (HA), National Shelter and the Community Federation of Housing
Australia (CHFA). He should have been
well aware of social conditions in his electorate as in January 2014 he officially
launched the Northern Rivers Social Profile 2013, which clearly states that 1 in
200 of this region’s population are homeless and it has median weekly household incomes which are 62-70% of the State
average, depending on where you live - with the lowest in the Clarence Valley.
As
part of The Nationals team in Canberra, I will create jobs here at home by:
* helping small
business growth and productivity by reducing red and green tape; The Abbott-Turnbull Government's Red Tape Repeal Day (commenced Autumn 2014) was itself repealed this year by the Turnbull Government and appears to have been largely ineffective in relation to both productivity and business growth. National productivity growth in 2012-13 was 3.7, by June 2014 it was 2.5 according to The Conference Board data. In 2015 productivity in the manufacturing, retail/wholesale, transport/logistics, business/property services sectors were below the average productivity of our global competitors in those sectors according to a Deloitte Access Economics analysis.In NSW compared with 2010-11 there were 9,675 fewer businesses at the start of the 2014-15 financial year. Nationally, agriculture, forestry and fishing industry sectors have seen business counts decrease by -2.4% from June 2014 to June 2015 according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics. In Hogan's own electorate in December 2013 there were est. 3,900 local businesses but by June 2014 that number had reduced to 3,863, representing an annual "year to June 2014" growth of -1.5% according to Lawrence Consulting.
* creating
a world class 5-Pillar economy building on our strengths in manufacturing innovation,
advanced services, agriculture exports, education and research, and mining
exports;
The 5 Pillars1 economic goal has not been achieved. The Reserve Bank recorded GDP growth in 2014 as 2.75% and projects GDP will only be between 2.50-3.50% in December
2016.
*
investing
in local roads and modern infrastructure; A work in progress in relation to roads, while the Abbott-Turnbull Government's idea of modern infrastructure appears not to have advanced beyond sloganeering and an approx. 90 project-long "rolling" wish list in its 2016 Australian Infrastructure Plan which seems to be confined to roads and railways.
*
delivering higher real wage growth and protecting workers’ rights; Not done. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics 2015 ended with the lowest wages growth on record since it began monitoring wages in 1998. As Kevin Hogan has never voted against his party's policy or position on any matter before the parliament, it is not expected that he would support protecting workers' rights in any move to change existing industrial relations law.
*
increasing
job security; Not done. Nationally the unemployment rate has gone from 5.6 in September 2013 to yo-yoing around 6 or over and then to 5.7 in March 2016. By December 2015 in Kevin Hogan's own electorate unemployment rates were still above the state average - Kyogle LGA 11.1%, Lismore LGA 10.2%, Ballina & Clarence LGAs 6.7%2a. The Coalition federal government continues to reduce the number of public service and government agency jobs2b.
*
providing
safe workplaces; Not done.
According to Workplace Safety statistics in 2013 workplace fatalities numbered 186, in 2014 they numbered 187, in 2015 fatalities totaled 193 with 2016 to 7 March seeing 22 workplace-related deaths nationwide. In 2013-14 there were 531,800 cases of work-related illness and disease and work-related conditions are reportedly among the top five leading causes of disability in Australia. Data on work-related illness and disease beyond 2013-14 is not yet publicly available.
*
implementing
workplace law reform to balance the system and reward people for effort;
Not done to date in relation to workplace reform and, as for rewarding people for effort, this appears to be confined to various as yet untested proposals to increase services, cash transfers, subsidies and tax cuts for predominately high income households.
and
*
providing
incentives for tradespeople, professionals and businesses to relocate to regional Australia. NSW Regional Relocation Home Buyers Grant closed on 30 September 2014 & Skilled Regional Relocation Incentive closed on 21 March 2015. Both had a
poor take up rate. The Commonwealth Relocation Assistance to take
up a job commenced in July 2014 – it too reportedly
has a patchy take up rate. Nationally, agriculture, forestry and fishing industry sectors have seen business counts decrease by -2.4% from June 2014
to June 2015 according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
The
Nationals in government will create one million new jobs over the next five
years and two million within the decade; To reach the first target an est. 8,333 additional new workers would need to be in employment on average each month until the end of 2018. ABS labour force surveys tell us that in September 2013 there were 11,646,800 people employed nationwide and, by January 2016 the total was 11,909,900 people in work - not the 12,143,224 total is would have been if Kevin Hogan and the Nationals had actually met their election promise. Since the Liberal-Nationals formed government in 2013 the combined unemployed & underemployed rate has ranged from 13.1 to 15.0%, currently at 14.3%. During the preceding two terms of Labor government the underemployment rate ranged from 9.5 to 13.8%, finishing at 13.3% according to ABS Labour Force,
Australia, Mar 2016.
The
Nationals plan for roads and infrastructure includes:
* delivering
on our commitments by making $5.6 billion of funding available to complete the upgrades to the Pacific Highway
through our region; Some of the upgrade work since 2013 used funding which was committed under the former Labor Government’s 2013-14 Budget.
During Kevin Hogan’s time as MP for Page Pacific Highway funding was deferred with
Maclean and Ballina projects delayed and the final completion date put back to 20203.
* ensuring that regional NSW roads receive appropriate funding and working with the state to upgrade our major regional transport routes including bridges; Local governments in the Page electorate have successfully applied for funds from the federal Bridges Renewal Program.
* continuing
the successful Roads to Recovery and Black Spot programs started by the Coalition in Government; Current funding (2012-13 to 2018-19 ) for these programs was allocated by the former Labor Government in its 2012-13 Budget when it extended the life of these programs
for another five years according to the
Dept. of Infrastructure and Transport Annual report 2012-13.
* supporting
regional and general aviation by abolishing the carbon tax on aviation fuels,
continuing the Remote Aerodrome Safety Program and providing assistance to
encourage the expansion of our regional network; In May 2013 the former Labor Government allocated $1.06 million to the Grafton Regional Airport Upgrade in Round 4 of the Regional Development Australia Fund4 – something Kevin Hogan took credit for in February 20145.
* delivering
the National Broadband Network quicker and cheaper than Labor while providing
users with faster speed downloads than current broadband allows. Readers
in the Page electorate are excused for cynically laughing out loud at this point, but the situation is serious for regional areas like the Page which is being locked out of genuine high-speed broadband at a time when access to a workable NBN will be the principal way to create new & innovative employment the local economy to offset the predicted existing job losses that increased computerization of business and industry will bring6.
Under a
Liberal and Nationals government our roads will be built faster and more fairly
without the bureaucratic squabbling between the two levels of government. We
will stop the blame game and get the job done. See footnote 3.
My
plan to build a sustainable environment includes implementation of a direct
action plan which:
* abolishes
the carbon tax; Done
* balances
the economic, social and environmental considerations in decisions between business, primary industries and nature; Not done to date.
* increases
government investment in and incentives for local green projects including soil
carbon storage; Northern Rivers Catchment Management Authority received funding of $548,000 ex GST (under round 1 of Action on the Ground from June 2012 to June 2015) to trial & demonstrate multiple farming practices which reduce farm greenhouse gas emission and increase soil carbon sequestration. At time of writing no local projects are known to
me which were funded by the Abbott-Turnbull Government.
* encourages
investment in clean green technologies; In 2014 Kevin Hogan voted for the
abolition of the Australian Renewable Energy
Agency (ARENA) and against restoring funding to this agency7 after
which investor confidence in the renewable energy industry stagnated according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance.
* refocuses
environmental spending on Australian projects, rather than sending money overseas; Not done. and
* creates
a 15,000 strong green army to work on environmental projects within Australia including cleaning up riverbanks and creek
beds, revegetating sand dunes, revegetating mangrove habitats and a host of other
environmental conservation projects. In December 2015 Green Army projects were capped at 500 per annum & funding was cut by est. $165.7 million8
We need a sensible balance between the
environmental, economic and social needs of our regions. Mining and gas extraction continue
to generate vast wealth for our country but should not be conducted where there is a risk
of land and/or water contamination. In 2014 Kevin Hogan voted for a bill which would allow
the handing over of approval power to the
states in relation to large coal mines and coal seam gas fields 9.
As part of The Nationals team, I will
work to deliver world class education in our region by:
*
working
with the states to ensure quality education is delivered to students regardless
of where they live; Neither the Abbott or Turnbull federal governments guaranteed
the full six years of Labor’s Gonski
funding program and former Education Minister Christopher Pyne has said the government believes it has a particular
responsibility for independent schools that
it doesn't have for public schools10.
* investing
in job skills training; TAFE fee waivers were abolished in December 2014 with TAFE funding cuts in the 2014-15 Abbott Government budget and, the cessation of the
Tools For Your Trade (TFYT) program.
* providing
incentives for teachers to relocate to regional areas;
* driving
genuine reform to give principals and local communities more power to put
students first; Mixed success as reportedly teachers in several schools have endorsed resolutions for their school to be withdrawn from the Empowering Local Schools, a joint federal-states initiative.
* ensuring
our curriculum is rigorous without being too prescriptive or overcrowded; A narrower curriculum focus is now in place & ministers of religion are allowed to proselytize within the school system with impunity.
* continuing
current levels of funding for schools, indexed to deal with real increases in
costs and ensuring that money is targeted based on
the social and economic status of the community; Non-government schools will receive the
same level of Federal-State funding per student as their public school counterparts by 018. Public schools are repoted to be facing
an est. $30 billion funding black hole
from 2018 if
the last two years of Gonski
funding are not forthcoming in the Turnbull Government 2016-17 budget.
* encouraging and investing in science
education at primary schools; National programs are underway. However, Australia's OECD PISA global ranking for science has slipped from 9th place in 2012 to 10th in 2015, with mathematics remaining as 12th in the rankings. Australia's ranking for reading skills has dropped from 8th place in 2012 to 10th place in 2015.
* working
with social media operators, schools, parents and children to tackle cyber
bullying and other harmful material and behaviour
targeted at children online; The Safe Schools program has been reviewed due to pressure from far-right
Coalition MPs & senators obviously uncomfortable with the existence of lesbian,
gay, bisexual, trans and/or intersex
(LGBTI) school students. Funding for this program will now end in 2017. Kevin Hogan appears to have never spoken out in support of this program in the House
of Representatives.
* reviewing
and restructuring government research funding to make sure each dollar is spent as effectively as possible; Research funding was reduced in the Liberal-Nationals 2014-15 and 2015-16 budgets, which saw National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy and Sustainable Research Excellence combined funding cuts at est. $674.2 million, however there appears to be no coherent planning by government for research into the future as the National Innovation & Science Agenda remains to date vaguely pie in the sky and potentially open to rorting by business at the expense of established research agencies.
* ensuring
the sector, including higher education, has a stable, long-term source of infrastructure funding; Not done to date and
* growing higher education as an export
industry and to support international students studying in Australia. The VET-Help loans scheme was rorted by private ‘colleges’11before the federal government would act, leaving an est. 40% of all these loans to private vocational course students now being considered unrecoverable
12.
My vision is to see every child in Australia
given access to and receiving the highest possible quality of education, and the genuine reform
throughout the sector that will make this a reality.
The Liberal and Nationals have released 'Our
Plan: Real Solutions for All Australians' which outlines many of the initiatives we will be
pursuing should we form government at the next election. As to the best of my knowledge Kevin Hogan has never rebelled against the orders of his Canberra masters and never crossed the floor to vote against any Abbott or Turnbull government measures, I suspect that his 2013 grand vision of "Our Plan" faded into nothingness long ago.
Footnotes
1.
Liberal Party Definition of the 5-Pillar Economy: Manufacturing Innovation, Agriculture Exports, Advanced
Services, world- class Education and Research, Mining Exports
2b. See http://www.smh.com.au/environment/climate-change/climate-will-be-all-gone-as-csiro-swings-jobs-axe-scientists-say-20160203-gml7jy.html & http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-03-12/future-of-national-librarys-trove-online-database-in-doubt/7242182 & http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-11-24/abc-adelaide-television-studios-to-close-after-55-years/5913624
as examples
3. See http://www.gladstoneobserver.com.au/news/coalition-rephase-70-million-pacific-highway-fundi/2115233/
4. Regional Development Australia Fund — Round 4
6. See http://northcoastvoices.blogspot.com.au/2016/03/this-was-malcolm-bligh-turnbulls-nbn.html and
http://adminpanel.ceda.com.au/FOLDERS/Service/Files/Documents/26792~Futureworkforce_June2015.pdf
http://adminpanel.ceda.com.au/FOLDERS/Service/Files/Documents/26792~Futureworkforce_June2015.pdf
11. See http://www.news.com.au/finance/money/costs/this-is-a-blatant-ripoff-of-the-taxpayer-training-colleges-facing-audit-of-predatory-pricing/news-story/b82f5b31b12ccc58755939fbfdb6d66d
12. See http://northcoastvoices.blogspot.com.au/2016/04/australian-federal-election-2016-higher.html
12. See http://northcoastvoices.blogspot.com.au/2016/04/australian-federal-election-2016-higher.html
Thursday, 28 April 2016
Australian Federal Election 2016: the face of private education
A report card on private education in Australia......
The New Daily, 25 March 2015:
More than 40 per cent of Australian secondary children now attend private schools – either so-called independent or religious schools. Australia has one of the most privatised school systems in the OECD….
New figures from the Productivity Commission show that government funding increases between 2008-09 and 2012-13 massively favoured private schools over public schools.
Funding for private schools in Victoria, for example, increased by 18.5 per cent per student, or eight times that of public schools.
Across Australia, the dollar increase for private schools was nearly five times that for public schools. The average increase for private schools was A$1,181 per student compared to only A$247 for public schools.
Other research indicates clearly that the equity gap between our school systems has continued to grow since the Gonski review in 2011.
Each private school pupil now receives, on average, a non-means-tested public subsidy of over A$8000 per year at the expense of the less privileged public school student. So much for the end of the age of entitlement.
In addition, pupils with disabilities in public schools receive A$12,000 of extra support while those in private schools get over A$30,000.
The Conversation, 24 April 2015:
PISA results from 2012 show that independent schools do better than Catholic schools, which in turn do better than government schools. However, when school-level socioeconomic background is taken into account, the differences in performance across school sectors are not significant.
A recent study by researchers at UQ, Curtin and USQ has allowed the simmering educational debate to come to the boil again. Drawing on data from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children, it finds that sending children to Catholic or other independent primary schools has no significant effect on cognitive or non-cognitive outcomes.
What is interesting is that researchers aligned this study with evidence from the US and UK and were able to draw the same conclusions. That is, for students attending non-government schools the returns are no different to public schools.
The Australian, 6 July 2015:
Taxpayer funding for private schools has grown twice as fast as for government schools, official data reveals.
Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority statistics show that federal, state and territory government funding for independent and Catholic schools grew by 23 per cent, on a per-student basis, between 2009 and 2013.
Taxpayer funding to government schools grew by just 12.5 per cent over the same period.
Taxpayers contributed $11,864 for each student in government schools, $9547 for those in Catholic schools and $7790 for other private school students in 2013.
Private school fees and donations boosted the total net recurrent income per student to $12,548 per government school student, $12,177 per Catholic student and $16,601 per private student, on average, in 2013.
The Conversation, 9 July 2015:
The Advertiser,11 November 2015:
ELITE Adelaide private school Prince Alfred College has been found liable for the sexual abuse of one of its students by a boarding master in the 1960s.
The Sydney Morning Herald, 6 January 2016:
A Sydney private school has been accused of underpaying its employees by the Independent Education Union.
Reddam House, headquartered in Sydney's eastern suburbs, faced the Fair Work Commission in December over allegations that it had not paid some of its early learning staff overtime, penalties or provided them with pay slips.
The allegations relate to a "state of the art early learning centre" that the 800-student school established on the north shore, last year.
The Reddam ELS centre for children aged between one and six years features "interactive piazza spaces, critical thinking studios and breakout areas", the Reddam House website says.
Despite Reddam's promotion of the early learning centre based in St Leonards as "one of the highlights of 2015", the school said the early learning staff were never employed by Reddam itself, a K-12 institution that earned $18 million in student fees last year.
Reddam's barrister, Christopher Parkin, told the commission that the staff were employed by Crawford Education Pty Ltd and were therefore not subject to the award agreements negotiated between Reddam House and the IEU.
The Sydney Morning Herald, 11 February 2016:
Thousands of students of at least four colleges have been left in limbo with huge debts following the collapse of one of the country's largest vocational education companies.
At least 500 administration and teaching staff have also been affected by the collapse.
Aspire College of Education, The Design Works College of Design, RTO Services Group and the Australian Indigenous College were placed in voluntary administration on Tuesday. Aspire alone has about 20 campuses around Australia.
All of the colleges are owned by Global Intellectual Holdings, which is also in administration with debt owing to ANZ Bank.
The fallout follows a federal government crackdown on the scandal-plagued vocational education sector, which included bans on inducements like free laptops and freezing funds to private colleges accessing VET FEE-HELP to 2015 levels.
There has been widespread rorting of VET FEE-HELP, a HECS-style loans system for vocational training students…..
Global Intellectual Holdings made $83 million in revenue in the year to June 2015, making it one of the largest vocational education companies in Australia.
The group's collapse comes despite Global Intellectual Holdings making a profit of $17.95 million in 2015. During the year it paid $14 million in dividends to its directors Roger Williams and Aloi Burgess. The accounts show the company held $19 million in debt.
News.com.au, 31 March 2016:
The Prime Minister said there was “a very powerful case” for giving state governments total responsibility for payments to state schools from income tax revenue, while the Commonwealth funded private education, such as Catholic schools….
Mr Turnbull’s proposal was among suggestions made in the Reforming the Federation white paper delivered to the Federal Government last year.
It’s options included give states and territories complete funding responsibility for education; and limiting federal spending to independent schools while states and territories fully fund public schools.
The Sydney Morning Herald, 4 April 2016:
On Monday, the Malek Fahd Islamic school in Greenacre lost an appeal to have $19 million in federal government funding reinstated.
The decision came after a Federal Department of Education investigation found the private school was operating for profit following allegations of six-figure loans to board members while basic services went unfunded…..
The decision from the Federal Department of Education means funding will dry up by Friday, the last day of term. Despite being a private institution, the school and five others operated by AFIC rely on public funding for 75 per cent of their income.
ABC News, 5 April 2016:
Some of Australia's most prestigious private schools are being sued for millions of dollars by men who allege they were sexually abused by teachers and staff.
Sydney lawyer Ross Koffel is bringing multiple claims for damages in the NSW Supreme Court against schools including The Scots College, Knox Grammar, Waverley College and De La Salle, Revesby Heights.
Mr Koffel told the ABC he had been approached by a large number of men who allege they were abused at private schools around the country.
"It just seemed to me to be the same problem in school after school after school and it surprised us how many schools, how many students are affected," Mr Koffel said.
"It is a systemic problem in the institutions, in the schools. We're alleging sexual abuse of the students during school hours in most cases and on the school premises, and it just really couldn't be worse."
Ten separate claims against The Scots College, Knox Grammar, Waverley College and De La Salle College, Revesby Heights have been lodged and another two claims will be lodged in coming months.
Mr Koffel said he is investigating another eight claims against other schools.
The Sydney Morning Herald, 11 April 2016:
Twenty of Sydney's wealthiest private schools received $111 million in taxpayer funding last year, new data has revealed, allowing the institutions to subsidise plans for tennis courts, flyover theatre towers, and Olympic pools with underwater cameras.
The schools, including The King's School, Trinity Grammar and SCECGS Redlands, have offset parents investments through the public purse courtesy of an $11 million increase in combined state and federal funding since 2012, according to MySchool data.
On Friday, Fairfax Media revealed that the oldest girls school in Australia, St Catherine's in Waverley, had won a battle to build a $63 million auditorium complete with an orchestra pit, a water polo pool, and a flyover tower for state-of-the-art theatre productions…..
It is illegal for private schools to invest recurrent funding in building works, but the public injections allow schools to produce savings in their recurrent staff budgets, and direct school fees and donations towards capital projects, where they can also receive separate dedicated capital funding from the government.
The Sydney Morning Herald, 20 April 2016:
More than 20 federal police officers raided Australian Careers Network last week after 16,000 students were left in limbo and hundreds of jobs were lost at the company. The action came after the ACCC launched action in the Federal Court in November against one of ACN's colleges to recover $106 million in taxpayer funding,
The ACCC has alleged the college acted unconscionably in enrolling students with intellectual disabilities and preying on people in Aboriginal communities while enrolling them in up to $18,000 in public debt. It also allegedly signed them up to online courses despite not having access to the internet.
The allegations could help to explain why Boston Consulting found ACN to be 224 per cent more efficient than TAFE in its use of physical assets.
The Sydney Morning Herald, 25 April 2016:
The multi-millionaire chief executive of an embattled private training empire has been accused of running a bizarre harassment campaign against a senior police officer during his former career as a cop on the Bass Coast.
Ivan Brown co-founded the Australian Careers Network.....
Before Mr Brown was propelled onto the BRW Young Rich List in 2014 with a stake in an estimated $177 million fortune, he worked as policeman in Wonthaggi. But the extraordinary circumstances of his departure from the force have never been made public.
Fairfax Media can reveal Mr Brown was the subject of an internal investigation by the former Ethical Standards Department over claims he launched a vindictive bullying campaign against Senior Sergeant Steve Gibson in 2009…..
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