Using the draconian 2004 Teacher's Code of Conduct I was ordered to delete 2.5 million words I had posted.
Two million of those words were to do with the former politics site, and parent of this site, 'Sydney's Conservative Weasel.' The other half million words were to do with postings of various writings I had done, some fiction, some autobiographical, for 'Winter's Harvest: Stories that heal.' or scientific republishing of new research at 'Astro Weasel's Space Club.'
My 'crime' as I was told, was to identify myself as the author of the sites. I wrote the Minister and asked for my workplace issues to be examined, after deleting the words and images. The Minister decided to sit on their hands, and so I resigned, my issues not dealt with. So the Education Department has covered up the details of the death through probable negligence of a school boy, the bungling of a pedophile investigation and the harassment of a teacher by Department officials.
Ms Gillard, who has ignored my plight, now claims moral high ground ..
Labor will ditch Howard's gags
ReplyDeleteBy Matthew Franklin
LABOR will rewrite thousands of government contracts with the not-for-profit sector to rip out clauses that it says the Howard Government used to gag its critics.
Acting Prime Minister Julia Gillard yesterday accused John Howard of silencing the advocacy efforts of the not-for-profit and volunteer sectors by reserving the right to censor their public statements in contracts for delivery of government-funded welfare services.
Labor will scrap the clauses in future contracts and review all existing agreements with a view to excising the gag clauses and reinstating freedom of speech.
"Effectively, the Howard Government moved to close down debate," Ms Gillard said.
"We believe robust debate is the best way of making sure the right things get done, and everybody's voice is heard."
Ms Gillard made the comments in an interview with The Australian in which she revealed that the Government had banned the use of Australian Workplace Agreements by the public service and ministerial offices except where it was unavoidable.
And she said preliminary findings of an audit into computers in high schools indicated that many Catholic and low-fee independent schools were as inadequately equipped as struggling state schools.
During the Howard years, not-for-profit groups delivering government welfare services often complained they could not speak out against general government policies for fear of losing their contracts or ruining their chances of winning work.
Yesterday, Ms Gillard, standing in while Kevin Rudd is on holiday, said a Labor review had found routine contracts riddled with gag clauses.
"There are clauses which require them to give government their media releases before they issue them, require them to give government submissions and reports and campaigns and matters to do with launches prior to them doing them," Ms Gillard said.
"It's very common for there to be a clause which says the department may, at its absolute discretion, give notice to the contractor to remove personnel from work in respect of the contract services."
The initiative to remove the gag on not-for-profit organisations comes as the Government has been under Opposition attack for directing key statutory agencies in the Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research to have all "strategic media releases" overseen by the Prime Minister's office. Ms Gillard said there was nothing wrong with the Government dictating terms related to the delivery of contracted work. But Mr Howard's government had extended its veto rights over public statements that had nothing to do with contracted services and were simply aimed at crippling the advocacy functions of welfare groups.
"We want to make sure the not-for-profit sector, the advocacy sector, can do what it does and have a say within the public domain," she said.
"We think it's important to a mature democracy that people who have got expertise in dealing with provision of services with disadvantaged groups in our society aren't constrained from entering the public debate."
She said welfare groups could have confidence under Labor that they could express views critical of the Government without fear of punitive action.
The move will affect hundreds of organisations, from big welfare providers such as the Salvation Army to the smallest community-based groups.
Australian Council of Social Service director Andrew Johnson welcomed the move last night as the beginning of a new era in welfare provision.
"The important thing is that the voices and the experience of those people who were closest to knowing about the issues weren't getting through as strongly as they could have," Mr Johnson said.
"This recognition means that at the end of the day, the country is going to get better policy."
Ms Gillard also said her parliamentary secretary for social inclusion and the voluntary sector, Ursula Stephens, would consult welfare groups in coming weeks ahead of a crackdown on red tape in contracts with the Government.
She said all contracts "came wrapped in a bundle of red tape" and that rationalisation of arrangements would mean the community groups would have to spend less on administration, leaving more money for service delivery.
Ms Gillard said that since taking office in November, the Government had instructed all departments to avoid the use of AWAs - the controversial individual workplace contracts put in place under the Howard government's Work Choices industrial relations legislation.
Labor came to power vowing to scrap AWAs but to allow common law contracts with special flexibility clauses for high-income earners.
Ms Gillard said all departments and ministerial offices were hiring either on collective industrial agreements or common law contracts, except in rare cases where there was no alternative but to use AWAs pending Labor legislation creating new interim agreements as part of a phase-out of AWAs.
Ms Gillard, whom Mr Rudd appointed to oversee his so-called education revolution, will be responsible for the Government's $1 billion plan to ensure every Australian student in Years nine to 12 has a computer at school.
While the Council of Australian Governments is conducting an audit of computer resources in schools across the country, Ms Gillard said early indications were that the levels of resources varied dramatically.
"Some schools are sitting there with good-quality internet access, with good access to computers, and far too many are beyond the reach of broadband because of this nation's problems with broadband," she said.
While some schools were well-resourced, some had only a limited number of computers being shared by many students.
She said shortages were not confined to government schools. "It certainly goes into the private sector as well," she said. "Many Catholic schools are without IT resources and many low-fee independent schools are without IT resources."
Despite the variability, all schools would receive a share of the new funding, she said. Those with high levels of existing resources would be given grants to upgrade their existing systems.