On Sat, 1 Feb 2014, Tim Long wrote:
Also the new liberal government has sabotaged the Labour Gonski model that was trying to redress this and has changed the funding arrangements to guarantee future funding increases to private/catholic schools and not public schools which enroll pretty much all disadvantaged students.
http://www.saveourschools.com.au/funding/the-coalition-has-sabotaged-gonksi
Which isn't surprising.. Go through all stuff Liberal does - you will find they benefit "well-off people" and hurt the rest. I don't know why it is so impolite to talk about "class wars" - they are still on. Over the last 20 years Australia was lucky to have an unprecented mining boom so there was a "trickle down" effect for most. God or whoever help Australia when this luck runs otut. Government and people seem to be very unprepared. I was pretty sure Abbott's time will be "wasted time" because it does not address any progress in economics. You can squeeze few per cent profit by union bashing but it does not help to steer Australia away from the reliance on two industries (mining and agriculture) which makes us so exposed to the volatility of the world's economy. We cannot effort a few million here and there and you need to pay more money to see a GP - but we have to support a high-profit mining industry with billion dollar fuel subsidizes. I am pretty sure the Rinehards and Palmers will survive the recession.. and that's what Abbott cares for. We have our home grown Tea Party here. Regards Peter