Cronyism, ALP, Fairfield

The SMH article is headlined "Cronyism just won't save a desperate Labor" and it's listed activity is not exhaustive, but symbolic. They give some compelling examples, but there is so much more.

In a recent 'discussion' I had with the Advance newspaper for Fairfield I had questioned why students were going home so early this year. One ALP supporter gushingly assured me that schools were finishing the year as normal .. but they weren't and I found out why. Usually schools finish about the 20th of December. This is because staff are expected to work a 201 day year and the education department generally won't let staff finish before the 20th, and the unions insist that there be some shopping days before Christmas.

2010 was different though. The 21st was a Monday and so schools ended up finishing on the 18th. One imagines the Department didn't want to fight over the Monday as a last day of school. However, the cherry on the top was taking two school staff development days from next year and placing them at the end of 2010. Children finished up on the Wednesday 16th. This meant that there were two school days without kids before the election which would allow the ALP to address school staff without kids. Joe Tripodi and his follower for Fairfield went to Fairvale HS and spoke extensively after the Principal ordered the staff to listen to their message. I am sure similar events were carried out around the state .. of course the conservative coalition would not have been invited. Maybe the Advance were right, it was business as usual.