In 2013 Australian universities are still predominately the professional training ground of the middle and upper classes while government schools remain the main education providers. So which level of education is most in need of increased government funding?

Once the Gillard Government had announced funding measures to underpin its policy response to the Review of Funding for Schooling Final Report December 2011 (Gonski Report) there was an immediate and predictable outcry regarding the government’s intention to remove $2.3 billion from direct/indirect tertiary education funding commencing in 2014.

Leaving aside the obvious wealth of some of the older universities, is this outcry justified? Should Australian taxpayer dollars continue to be spent at record levels on higher education or should these be spent in a more immediately equitable manner with the eventual aim of increasing the education standard of the population?

Australian Society

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics in 2009–10 twenty-three per cent of the Australian population lived in low income-low wealth households. With sixty-one per cent of female single parents and forty-nine per cent of single male parents living in low economic resource households.

Economic hardship often means that people experience a relatively low material standard of living. For people who live in economic hardship, access to economic resources that provide for the consumption of goods and services such as food, housing, clothing, medical care and so on are limited Low economic resources can also restrict a person's ability to be included in the society around them, and limit their opportunities to create the life they want.

The Universities

The Higher Education Base Funding Review Final Report (O c t o b e r  2 0 11) states that: In 2007, total government funding to the higher education sector was $8 billion, of which base funding was $6.4 billion. In 2011, total government funding had reached close to $12 billion, of which $8.5 billion is base funding. It is estimated that in 2013, total government funding will be $13.6 billion and total base funding will be $10 billion.

A further $500 million will come from the Education Investment Fund for the tertiary sector over the next five years, although it is not yet known what proportion of these funds will be allocated to universities.

According to the Department of Industry, Innovation, Research and Tertiary Education: From 2012 to 2015 the Gillard Government will invest $58.9 billion in higher education and that funding for university student places in 2013 was 10.1 per cent higher.

The majority of students enrolled at Australian universities still come from middle or high socio-economic status backgrounds.

While university enrolments in Australia have more than doubled in the last two decades, students from low SES backgrounds are three times less likely to enter university than those from high SES backgrounds……

An obvious barrier to a student’s entry into higher education is non-completion of secondary school and general poor academic achievement. As noted above, the literature identifies that secondary education non-completion rates are much higher for low SES, Indigenous, and regional and remote student groups than they are for others. The evidence points to a strong negative correlation between low SES and secondary school completion and thus entry to higher education.

The Australian Council for Education Research media release indicates that in 2013 an estimated 14.3 per cent to 18.5 per cent of domestic university undergraduates in Australian universities in 2013 come from a low socioeconomic background.

Primary and Secondary Schools

Government schools remained the main provider of school education in Australia, with a total of 2,342,379 students, compared with 736,595 students attending Catholic schools, and 511,012 students attending Independent schools…..

..in absolute terms Indigenous student numbers in government schools, 149,307, far exceeded the number in non-government schools, 26,750….

In 2012 the apparent retention rate for all students was 79.9%, with the female rate of 84.3% being 8.5 percentage points higher than the male rate of 75.8%.

In 2012, the rate varied considerably across affiliations: 75.8% in government schools, 82.1% in Catholic schools, and 91.8% in Independent schools, the latter down from a high of 94.9% in 2009…..

Between 2011 and 2012, the apparent retention rate for Indigenous males rose by 3.1 percentage points to 49.2%, and for Indigenous females rose by 1.6 percentage points to 52.9%. The apparent retention rates from Year 7/8 to Year 10 for these students were significantly higher at 96.9% for males and 100.0% for females.

A rather disturbing picture

In Focus: North Korea's Nuclear Threats 
The New York Times
12 April 2013

Dart Energy in trouble overseas as well as in Australia

Apparently Dart Energy’s ‘farewell’ to Australia* contained more spin than usual and bad business choices may be at the bottom of its restructuring, cost cutting and refocusing program.

Herald Scotland 7 April 2013:

The troubled Australian company Dart Energy has applied for planning permission to extract up to 60 billion cubic feet of coalbed methane at Airth, near Falkirk.

It has signed a £300 million deal with SSE for the supply of gas over the next seven years, and has said it hopes to start delivery before the end of this year.

But the Sunday Herald has seen evidence that the calorific value of the gas, which is crucial in determining its price for consumers, is unlikely to be high enough for the National Grid.

Dart has been warned about the problem by independent consultants.

The company has been told that the gas may need to be blended with higher-quality gas on the grid, which, if permitted, would have cost implications.

Alternatively the gas could be enriched by adding propane, a high-risk process that is not included in the current planning applications by the company.

According to experts, enrichment would mean importing nearly 100 tonnes of propane every day, in three large tanker deliveries.

It would also require part of the site to be regulated by the Health and Safety Executive as a "major accident hazard".

Dart declined to directly answer questions about calorific value, though it insisted that its gas would be saleable. Critics, however, claimed that the gas-quality issues could be the "final straw" for the Falkirk development.

Stirling Green councillor Mark Ruskell accused Dart of "fuelling suspicion" about its gas development plans.

"If the gas requires further treatment then it makes a mockery of the current planning applications under consideration by two councils," he said.

"It's clear that a moratorium is required at the very least until the planning system is able to address all the concerns that unconventional gas developments are raising."

Dart's applications to Falkirk and Stirling councils to sink 22 wells at 14 sites have prompted more than 700 objections to date.

The councils have postponed consideration of the applications, which will not now be heard until next month at the earliest……

* Interestingly when Dart withdrew from Australia it only had nineteen employees listed in this country.

Want to know what the Australian Federal Coalition's real policies are? Here's a list Opposition Leader Tony Abbott appears to endorse.

Excerpt from Tony Abbott’s 5 April 2013 Address to Institute of Public Affairs 70th Anniversary Dinner:

So, ladies and gentlemen, that is a big “yes” to many of the 75 specific policies you urged upon me in that particular issue of the magazine….

The Institute of Public Affairs 75 radical ideas to transform Australia published in August 2012:

1 Repeal the carbon tax, and don't replace it. It will be one thing to remove the burden of the carbon tax from the Australian economy. But if it is just replaced by another costly scheme, most of the benefits will be undone.

2 Abolish the Department of Climate Change

3 Abolish the Clean Energy Fund

4 Repeal Section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act

5 Abandon Australia's bid for a seat on the United Nations Security Council

6 Repeal the renewable energy target

7 Return income taxing powers to the states

8 Abolish the Commonwealth Grants Commission

9 Abolish the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission

10 Withdraw from the Kyoto Protocol

11 Introduce fee competition to Australian universities

12 Repeal the National Curriculum

13 Introduce competing private secondary school curriculums

14 Abolish the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA)

15 Eliminate laws that require radio and television broadcasters to be 'balanced'

16 Abolish television spectrum licensing and devolve spectrum management to the common law

17 End local content requirements for Australian television stations

18 Eliminate family tax benefits

19 Abandon the paid parental leave scheme

20 Means-test Medicare

21 End all corporate welfare and subsidies by closing the Department of Industry, Innovation, Science, Research and Tertiary Education

22 Introduce voluntary voting

23 End mandatory disclosures on political donations

24 End media blackout in final days of election campaigns

25 End public funding to political parties

26 Remove anti-dumping laws

27 Eliminate media ownership restrictions

28 Abolish the Foreign Investment Review Board

29 Eliminate the National Preventative Health Agency

30 Cease subsidising the car industry

31 Formalise a one-in, one-out approach to regulatory reduction

32 Rule out federal funding for 2018 Commonwealth Games

33 Deregulate the parallel importation of books

34 End preferences for Industry Super Funds in workplace relations laws

35 Legislate a cap on government spending and tax as a percentage of GDP

36 Legislate a balanced budget amendment which strictly limits the size of budget deficits and the period the federal government can be in deficit

37 Force government agencies to put all of their spending online in a searchable database

38 Repeal plain packaging for cigarettes and rule it out for all other products, including alcohol and fast food

39 Reintroduce voluntary student unionism at universities

40 Introduce a voucher scheme for secondary schools

41 Repeal the alcopops tax

42 Introduce a special economic zone in the north of Australia including: 
a) Lower personal income tax for residents 
b) Significantly expanded 457 Visa programs for workers 
c) Encourage the construction of dams

43 Repeal the mining tax

44 Devolve environmental approvals for major projects to the states

45 Introduce a single rate of income tax with a generous tax-free threshold

46 Cut company tax to an internationally competitive rate of 25 per cent

47 Cease funding the Australia Network

48 Privatise Australia Post

49 Privatise Medibank

50 Break up the ABC and put out to tender each individual function 
51 Privatise SBS 
52 Reduce the size of the public service from current levels of more than 260,000 to at least the 2001 low of 212,784

53 Repeal the Fair Work Act

54 Allow individuals and employers to negotiate directly terms of employment that suit them

55 Encourage independent contracting by overturning new regulations designed to punish contractors

56 Abolish the Baby Bonus

57 Abolish the First Home Owners' Grant

58 Allow the Northern Territory to become a state

59 Halve the size of the Coalition front bench from 32 to 16

60 Remove all remaining tariff and non-tariff barriers to international trade

61 Slash top public servant salaries to much lower international standards, like in the United States

62 End all public subsidies to sport and the arts

63 Privatise the Australian Institute of Sport

64 End all hidden protectionist measures, such as preferences for local manufacturers in government tendering

65 Abolish the Office for Film and Literature Classification

66 Rule out any government-supported or mandated internet censorship

67 Means test tertiary student loans 

68 Allow people to opt out of superannuation in exchange for promising to forgo any government income support in retirement

69 Immediately halt construction of the National Broadband Network and privatise any sections that have already been built

70 End all government funded Nanny State advertising

71 Reject proposals for compulsory food and alcohol labelling

72 Privatise the CSIRO

73 Defund Harmony Day

74 Close the Office for Youth

75 Privatise the Snowy-Hydro Scheme

There is good news 10 minutes south from Byron Bay along the Pacific Highway

Tony Gilding of the Macadamia Castle today announced a major expansion and refurbishment programme. The programme is in part funded by two grants from the Federal Governments tourism industry assistance schemes. The total project budget is excess of $500,000 and the funding assistance from the Federal Government is $227,475. The balance will be funded by The Macadamia Castle.

The first project is an educational Frog Conservation Pod in association with Southern Cross University. It will serve the dual function of education about the importance of saving our local frogs as well as being a programme to breed and release local endangered frogs.

International Court of Justice to hear Australia's case against Japanese whaling in the Southern Ocean on June 26, 2013

Media Release

ATTORNEY-GENERAL TO REPRESENT AUSTRALIA 

 IN INTERNATIONAL WHALING CASE AGAINST JAPAN

Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus QC will appear in Australia’s whaling case against Japan which has now been set down for a three week hearing in the International Court of Justice in the Hague from 26 June, 2013.
“I welcome the announcement of the ICJ hearing date. Australia wants this slaughter to end. We will now have our day in court to establish, once and for all, that Japan’s whaling hunt is not for scientific purposes and is against international law,” said Mr Dreyfus.
“The fixing of the date sets up the final stage in this case brought by the Australian Government. The oral hearings are the last phase of legal proceedings before the Court makes its decision.”
Australia commenced the proceedings against Japan on 31 May 2010. The International Court of Justice has received written submissions from both Parties.
Australia’s views on whaling are well known – we condemn all commercial whaling, including Japan’s so-called ‘scientific’ whaling,” said Minister for Environment Tony Burke.
“The Australian Government’s decision to bring this legal action demonstrates our determination to end commercial whaling.”
Minister for Foreign Affairs Bob Carr said Australia’s whaling case did not undermine the relationship between Australia and Japan.
“Australia and Japan have agreed that our differences over whaling will not affect the strong bilateral relationship we share,” said Mr Carr.
“The International Court of Justice is the appropriate forum to resolve these differences in a calm and measured way.”
Counsel appearing in the case with the Attorney-General will include Solicitor-General Justin Gleeson SC, Bill Campbell QC, Professor James Crawford SC, Professor Philippe Sands QC and Professor Laurence Boisson de Chazournes.
“We hope the Court will deliver its decision on the legality of Japan’s whaling before the start of the next whaling season,” Mr Dreyfus said.

April 12, 2013

ICJ hearing schedule

WHO IS THE AVERAGE AUSTRALIAN?

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics Social Trends:

Despite many people's image of the typical Australian being male, the average Australian is in fact a woman: in 2011, just over half of all people in Australia were female.Throughout most of the twentieth century, there were more men than women in Australia, but since 1979, women have slightly outnumbered men. In 1911, there were around 108 men for every 100 women, but in recent years, the sex ratio has remained relatively constant at around 99 men for every 100 women.

Much has been made in the media about the specific characteristics of this 37 year-old Australian-born married woman, living with her husband and two children (a boy and a girl aged nine and six) in a three bedroom $1,800 a month mortgaged house in the suburbs of a capital city while working as a sales assistant - with little mention of the fact that 'she' probably doesn't exist in the flesh as an average over such diverse demographic sets will almost inevitably produce a statistical myth.