Same old Labor: Gillard spins on school principals

02/08/10

Julia Gillard’s claim of support for principal autonomy simply doesn’t stack up with her previous statements.

The big test on principal autonomy for Julia Gillard and Labor was to trust government school principals to manage their own ‘school hall’ fund projects, a test she failed.

Despite 18 months of waste and mismanagement, rorting and price gouging, clocking up as much as $8 billion in waste, Julia Gillard continues to pay ‘school hall’ fund money to the states, instead of to school principals.

Labor’s current Education Minister, Simon Crean, said as recently as Saturday that the Government still didn’t trust principals to manage BER projects, wanting to set up a Citizens Assembly in every school instead.

If Julia Gillard genuinely believed in principal autonomy then why did she sit on a report commissioned by the previous Government into the subject for two years, and ignore the recommendations until the election?

Today’s announcement has no detail of how Labor would wrest control over schools from the state bureaucracy, nor is it clear how a $50,000 grant will result in more autonomy.

Julia Gillard has also failed to live up to her own promise of remaining budget neutral in this campaign by spelling out how this new policy will be paid for. Labor has provided no details of corresponding cuts and parents have the right to know where the cuts are being made.

The Coalition has always supported principal autonomy and we are the only party that trusts principals to manage the remaining BER ‘school hall’ funds. We have committed to redirect money to schools, and let them keep the savings.

We’re standing up for real action on education and ending Labor’s waste on the BER.