Articles

The Industrial logjam holding our children back

PUBLISHED IN THE AUSTRALIAN: While the change in Parliamentary Speaker was drowning other news, the Gillard government quietly dropped its promised teacher bonus scheme. Axing this clumsy add-on to the existing teacher salary structures was sensible, but the principle of merit pay remains esse... ... (29-Nov)

Direct instruction teaching valuable lessons in Cape York

PUBLISHED IN 'THE AUSTRALIAN': The official results are not in but every indication from reforms in three Cape York communities suggests a breakthrough is finally occurring in remote indigenous schooling. Children are attending at just below mainstream levels and many are learning faster than ... ... (22-Oct)

Believe it or not, economists have been wrong before

PUBLISHED IN THE PUNCH: In this country we are blessed with some outstanding economists. But can they be collectively wrong? The Gillard Government thinks not. They claim that no economist is backing the Coalition’s Direct Action Plan, which therefore proves that it is the wrong policy. Case c... ... (09-Jul)

Gambling Your House Away

ARTICLE IN THE ROWVILLE-LYSTERFIELD COMMUNITY NEWS: As an MP, you sometimes get constituents in your office whose stories blow your mind and set you on a course you never expected. This was the case when a young, unemployed Wantirna man came to see me in early March. The young man was given $80,000 ... ... (04-Jul)

Threats to local catholic school funding raised in parliament

Federal Member for Aston, Alan Tudge MP, has spoken in the Parliament voicing his deep concern for eight Catholic schools in his electorate, who are at risk of having their funding reduced following the Federal Government’s review of school funding. These are the schools that are presently “funding ... ... (11-May)

Too Many Lives Lost to Depression

PUBLISHED IN THE 'ROWVILLE-LYSTERFIELD COMMUNITY NEWS'. “If we can prevent just one suicide, it will be worth all of our effort.” This was the powerful message of Pauline Renzow at the Youth Mental Health Public Forum earlier this month. A participant at the Forum, this coura... ... (09-May)

God important to Gillard? You wouldn’t read about it

PUBLISHED IN 'THE PUNCH '. This is a joint submission by Christopher Pyne MP, Shadow Minister for Education, and Alan Tudge MP. Federal Member for Aston. As is often the case, the Gillard Government says one thing and does another. If Julia Gillard thinks that people should know their Bible st... ... (23-Mar)

Integrating Indigenous Australians in the real economy

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 ... ... (23-Feb)

Best in Class

PUBLISHED IN 'AUSTRALIAN POLITY' - Volume 1 (Number 5), 20 December, 2010. Apart from domestic and national security, the two main duties of government are economic growth and social cohesion. Education policy is unique among policy issues because it has such an enormous impact on economi... ... (20-Dec)

Raise teacher entry levels and lower the barriers to high flyers

PUBLISHED IN 'THE AUSTRALIAN'. TOUGH decisions needed to make Australian teaching world class. The most contentious of the necessary reforms is to fire bad teachers. The latest Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development report on secondary school achievement shows our top students ... ... (13-Dec)