Editorial-26 June 2003
Pot-Shot Policy Formulation or Progress Through Propaganda |
Commonwealth government departments maintain large budgets to inform the public about what they are doing that is in the national interest. Among other conduits for information distribution they maintain sophisticated World Wide Web sites and in fact one of the noticeable improvements coinciding with Brendan Nelson becoming Minister for Education, Science and Training has been the upgrading of the department's website and its response time compared with its predecessor, though at times it takes a bit of digging to get to the information you might be looking for.
One of the less attractive features of the Department of Education, Science and Training's website is the extensive use made by Dr. Nelson of media releases for naked party political preposes. It's the public's money that pays the salaries of those who write and promulgate these media releases. DEST and it's minister are hardly unique in using governmental departmental resources in broadcasting political propaganda and it is hardly something indulged in exclusively by the Coalition. Nevertheless that doesn't make it right and one of the consequences is that it calls into question the veracity in general of the material put out by the Department.
For "party political broadcasts" use party resources?
No, couldn't do that, far too radical a suggestion.
Of course most of the media releases drop into a black hole but it may be instructive to have a look at some of the June titles.
June 25, 2003 | NSW BUDGET HAMMERS TAFE STUDENTS |
June 25, 2003 | NSW GOVERNMENT AGAIN FAILS TO FUND ITS SCHOOLS |
June 25, 2003 | Senate Inquiry into Higher Education/TAFE Fees in NSW |
June 24, 2003 | LABOR MISLEADS ON HIGHER EDUCATION – AGAIN |
June 19, 2003 | THE BULLETIN MAGAZINE (June 3): "WHERE ON EARTH IS LABOR’S BLUEPRINT FOR UNIVERSITIES?" |
June 18, 2003 | LABOR RULES OUT SUPPORTING HIGHER EDUCATION LOANS FOR POORER STUDENTS |
June 4, 2004 | QUEENSLAND GOVERNMENT AGAIN FAILS TO FUND ITS SCHOOLS |
These seven are the blatant Labor Party bashing releases. The total number of media releases for the month up to June 26th is 21. While displaying a good deal of hype the other 14 are at least positive in tenor. So a full third are manifest pot-shots and have no place on a governmental website.
On the other hand since the release of Dr. Nelson's higher education reform package no rebuttal of carefully crafted criticism has been forthcoming. For example The National Tertiary Education Union published a 10 page critique of Dr. Nelson's reform package, Estimating the Impact of Funding Changes in Backing Australia's Future on University Operating Income in which it determines that of the $1,465 million promised in the reform package over four years, $753 million (51.4%) is new money the rest is giving back with the right hand what the left hath taken away.
Similarly the Australian Vice-Chancellors' Committee earlier this month
published a
44 page assessment
Considering that the Department for Education Science and Training had 728 submissions and spent over $1 million in its drive to formulate what was pretty well touted to be DEST's "Marshall Plan" for higher education, it's just as well Dr. Nelson wasn't responsible for the reconstruction of Europe following World War II.
The AV-CC's Seventeen Recommendations
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Alex Reisner
The Funneled Web