PARLIAMENT OF AUSTRALIA How can we get education up to scratch in the schools which have the most disadvantaged students and where the teachers have a less-than-average amount of experience? This is the challenge for many schools, especially those in remote Indigenous communities. Noel Pearson and his colleagues in the Cape York Aboriginal Australian Academy…
PARLIAMENT OF AUSTRALIA There is a core principle in relation to school policy that has been adhered to by successive governments, and that is when determining new policies that impact on schools we do not distinguish between the government and the nongovernment school sectors in the application of those policies. When you look through the…
PARLIAMENT OF AUSTRALIA: Yesterday I had the pleasure of celebrating National Harmony Day in my electorate with several hundred members of the local Indian community. The venue was the Sant Nirankari Mission, which is based in Rowville, in the southern part of my electorate. The leaders of the mission, including Reverend Tuli and Manjit Singh,…
I rise to support the Education Services for Overseas Students Legislation Amendment Bill 2010. This bill is an important one because it will strengthen Australia’s reputation as an international student destination. It will allow the Commonwealth to take action more immediately; it will strengthen registration requirements; and it will expand the role of the Commonwealth…
Federal Member for Aston, Alan Tudge MP, has presented Local Sporting Champions Grants awards to young people throughout Knox who have participated in state and national sporting championships. At a presentation and afternoon tea, Mr Tudge said that the Local Sporting Champions program recognises the individual efforts and the achievements of young people in the…
I rise to speak in support of the Schools Assistance Amendment (Financial Assistance) Bill 2011. This is an important bill and broadly speaking it is a good bill. It is important because it concerns the largest and most significant part of our education system—the school education system—and because it concerns the funding that they receive…
PARLIAMENT HOUSE, CANBERRA: Mr TUDGE (Aston) (10.49 am)—In 2007 the Howard government introduced a new, school based program called the National School Chaplaincy Program. This program provides up to $60,000 over three years to each school to enable them to employ a school chaplain at their school. The program has been, as you may be…
A little over a week ago a significant announcement was made in my electorate by the Victorian transport minister—that is, that the Rowville rail feasibility study would soon be underway. The Rowville rail project has been talked about for decades, but we have never got traction on it and now we finally will. With a…
PARLIAMENT HOUSE, CANBERRA: Mr TUDGE (Aston) (1.23 pm)—I rise to oppose the Tax Laws Amendment (Temporary Flood Reconstruction Levy) Bill 2011 and the Income Tax Rates Amendment (Temporary Flood Reconstruction Levy) Bill 2011, and I do so as a member of an outer metropolitan seat in Melbourne in which families and members of the community…
PUBLISHED THE ABC WEBSITE. The Prime Minister’s 2011 “Closing the Gap” Statement was passionately delivered earlier this month, but her fine words could not disguise the fact that there is little evidence of progress, and no convincing plan, that gives us hope that next year’s Statement will be any different to this year’s or the…