AUSTRALIA
guarantee Australia’s future prosperity by building on our national strengths. It will strengthen the economy through lower taxes, less regulatory burdens and higher productivity”. In particular, the she noted that “the repeal of the carbon tax and mining tax are at the heart of my government’s plan to strengthen the Australian economy. As its first order of business, this Parliament will consider legislation to repeal the carbon tax”.
In relation to small business
and deregulation, the Governor- General stated that “employing almost one in two people in the
THIRD READING: AUSTRALIA Mr Bernard Wright
private sector, small businesses are the best job creators in the Australian economy. My government will lower taxes, cut red tape and make it easier for small businesses to grow and employ more people”. It was noted that Northern Australia is Australia’s growth frontier, and that “over the next 12 months, my government will develop a white paper to guide the policies and plans that will unlock the full economic potential of the North”. In addition to these measures, the Governor-General outlined her government’s agenda for road transport, broadband, the National Disability Insurance Scheme, hospitals, education, border protection, the environment, indigenous Australians, and an economic growth plan for
Australian Education Act 2013 The Australian Education Act establishes goals for Australian schooling and provides for grants of financial assistance to states and territories. The then Prime Minister Hon. Julia Gillard, MP, stated that “we can enshrine in law our nation’s expectations for our children’s achievements at school”. The legislation sets out five new legislative measures including a new citizenship entitlement, new goals for Australian education, a new national plan for school improvement, new principles for school funding, and a new link between school funding and school improvement. Ms Gillard stated that “the Bill provides that the Australian government will deliver future funding on the principles legislated in this Bill to those states, territories and non- government authorities which agree to implement the national plan”.
Ms Gillard commented that “there should be Australian government support to educate every Australian child—in the poorest and most remote school—at the best known and best resourced school. This is a distinctively Labor plan for a matter of the highest Labor purpose: to eradicate the great moral wrong which sees some Australian children denied the transformative power of a great education”. She asked Australian public figure and businessman, Mr David Gonski, to conduct the first comprehensive review of school funding arrangements in almost 40 years. Ms Gillard commented that “the review found that current arrangements for funding, accountability and transparency of our schools are not supporting quality outcomes for all our students”. As a result the review recommended a fundamental overhaul of the way that Australian schools were funded. Ms Gillard explained
that “this is why the government has adopted the broad architecture of a benchmark amount per student, with extra needs to be met through a system of loadings: a dramatic simplification of the way we fund schools”. Liberal Senator Helen Kroger was critical of the short time frame the government allocated to allow scrutiny of the legislation. In addition she noted “that the government are being quite misleading when they keep on referring to these measures, loosely—I do say loosely—as being part of the Gonski recommendations. The one person we have not heard from since these bills have been formulated for us to consider is the esteemed David Gonski himself. He is not associating himself with these bills. What he did was undertake a very comprehensive review and make a number of recommendations, and the government have cherry- picked aspects of that review and incorporated them in these bills. It is very deceptive to suggest that this is the conclusion of all the recommendations made in the review, because that is far from the truth”. Australian Greens Senator Penny Wright commented that “to the extent that they establish a framework for needs-based funding of schools in Australia the Australian Greens commend these two pieces of legislation. The Australian Greens believe that education is the foundation of democracy, and a well-resourced, public education system striving for excellence is the guarantee of a healthy and fair society”. Senator Wright noted that “the Greens have argued for a decade that our national funding model needs to be changed to make it fairer, to make sure that public education is properly funded throughout Australia and to invest billions more in education commensurate with the funding of our peers in other developed countries”.
The Parliamentarian | 2013: Issue Four | 347
Tasmania. She concluded that “over the next three years, my government aims to provide mature and stable leadership that matches words with deeds, leadership that puts its faith in Australia’s greatest resource— the genius and creativity of our people”.
Hon, Anna Burke, MP
Retirement of the Clerk of the House of Representatives On 21 August 2013 the Clerk of the House of Representatives,
Mr Bernard Wright announced that he would retire in December. He has worked in the Parliament since 1972 and joined the public service in 1971. He was previously the Deputy Clerk and was appointed the 15th Clerk of the House in December 2009. The then Speaker of the House, Hon. Anna Burke, MP, commented that “on behalf of all Members past and present, I would like to thank Mr Wright for his dedicated service to the
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