To the shapers of the future - what's important to you?? (2 Viewers)

[withoutaface]

Also aren't they looking at the consolidation of certain sectors?

Yes. They're looking at using the money freed up by cutting bureaucrats to hire more nurses, teachers and police.

 

[Tulipa]

Yes. They're looking at using the money freed up by cutting bureaucrats to hire more nurses, teachers and police.

Heh. Iemma really shouldn't jump on that. How many people would want to keep such red tape in practise?

Hugely in favor of that.

 

[Nick Minchin]

Even Treasurer Michael Costa has said that the public sector is too large.
(Too many workers in Costa's empire)

 

[kami]

To all those first-time or newer voters,

What electorate are you in?
What political issues are important to YOU for the upcoming NSW state election?
And are the pollies making you all aware of the issues, or do you feel kind of lost?


I'm actually a UTS student doing a story for the Sydney Morning Herald website. We're doing a section called "grassroots" which means we focus entirely on everyday people...instead of going to interview politicians or what-not.

So, if you could answer those above quick questions, that'd be great. I just need your name, age, suburb and electorate and your thoughts!

Thank you!

Education: One of my primary concerns - it feels as if the current system is slowly but surely degrading however rather than fix what we have there is this large push for it to be nationalised, which is something of which I do not approve. So I think whatever government comes out of the upcoming election should be one that is apt to revitalise the current education system and help maintain the independence of such from the federal government. However it seems neither major party is keen to make its preferences known in this matter (or if they are, they are not being clearly disseminated to the public).

Public Transport: Another important issue is the railways, they are an absolute shambles and I'm immensely dissatisfied with whatever decision-making (or lack thereof) went into making it this way.

Water: Desalination is an absolutely idiotic notion which will be more harmful to the environment in the long run (and considering how much damage we've done to it already...).

The result is that I honestly cannot vote for Labor ... but in my mind to vote for Liberal would be akin to introducing the kind of conservative regime which Howard espouses except with far less experience and skill. So I most likely will opt toward Independent.

Name: Evan Gray
Age: 20
Academic Programme: UTS BA Communications (Writing & Cultural Studies), MQ Certificate of Languages (French)
State Electorate: Miranda
Federal Electorate: Cook

 

[Nebuchanezzar]

[qupte=Not-That-Bright]But rich private schools represent a saving to the government. If you took all government out of private schools as to make them less adventageous than they already are then the government would end up having to spend more money on the private school kids that move over to public schools.[/quote]

I guess that schools being cheaper for the government to run is more important than everyone getting an equal education then, huh? Anyway, I think that people misunderstoood what I was saying, mostly my fault seeing as I didn't say it well. Basically, Latham's idea was to take funding from rich private schools and put them into poor public schools so that school funding was evened out. Although there would have been a few problems with it at first, it would be nothing compared to the gross system that we have now, whereby schools like Newington can afford to have multiple ovals and small class sizes, whereas schools like Camden High School have oversized mathematics classes and poor teachers all around.

That's another thing also. I don't see how, or why anyone can defend the private system if it encourages teachers to go to a private school for more money, which it does. There's no two ways about this, it favours the rich and it's absurdly unfair. There's no room in Australia for this type of social injustice, none whatsoever. Above all else, this is the biggest problem with the private/public shamble system that we have going at the moment, where public school systems run the real risk of having low quality teacher numbers because another school can steal them away to give to the rich kids. Don't feed me any crap about teachers not doing that. Some are good, there's no denying that, but the majority see money as a huge incentive.

1. If all schools were made to be private the cost of education would come down significantly.

Explain please.

 

[Peter Garrett]

I guess that schools being cheaper for the government to run is more important than everyone getting an equal education then, huh? Anyway, I think that people misunderstoood what I was saying, mostly my fault seeing as I didn't say it well. Basically, Latham's idea was to take funding from rich private schools and put them into poor public schools so that school funding was evened out. Although there would have been a few problems with it at first, it would be nothing compared to the gross system that we have now, whereby schools like Newington can afford to have multiple ovals and small class sizes, whereas schools like Camden High School have oversized mathematics classes and poor teachers all around.

In all fairness to the former leader of the ALP, I think that it would be best to point out that you are wrong. The funding aspect of the ALP's education policy involved the redistribution of funds within the non-public, independent sector and the granting of additional funds to both the public and Catholic systemic sectors. At no stage did the ALP say that it would transfer funds from one system to another.

 

[highpingbastard]

Hi guys,

Thanks for all your very interesting responses. You can find some of them published on SMH Online through this link:

http://www.smh.com.au/news/grassroo...er-of-who-cares/2007/02/27/1172338607671.html

Cheers!

 

[Not-That-Bright]

Thanks for using my comments man, but I don't understand the error with desalinisation?

 

[Stott Despoja]

Thanks for using my comments man, but I don't understand the error with desalinisation?

I wouldn't call it an error, but desalination is the correct term.

 

[ElendilPeredhil]

Name: Katrina
Age: 18
Studying: B Languages and International Business

State: I'm voting labor or independant because the liberals couldn't run a bake sale, but I think desal water is ridiculous and recycling is the way to go.

Federal: labor because they promised to get rid of the new workplace relation laws, because our relationship with the US is becoming far too close,
(any day now, 'Australia, the 51st state of America') & because J.H is an elitist snob who thinks only of big business and is eroding all the rights Australians spent decades protesting for.