EMBARGO:. 8.00 P.! fi.
SPEECH BY THE PRIME MINISTER, MR E. G. WHITLAM, QC, MP, FOR THE
OPENING OF THE ANNUAL ART EXHIBITION AT ST PATRICK' S COLLEGE,
STRATHFIE. LD, FRIDAY, 26 APRIL 1974
I was assured when I accepted your invitation to open this
exhibition that I could make my speech " as political as you like".
Since we are about to start an election campaign I am happy to
accept your assurance and take you at your word. The question is:
should I make a political speech about art or a political speech
about education? Like St. Patrick's College, we have an excellent
record in both. We have almost doubled Australian Government
assistance to the arts and we have almost doubled Australian
Government assistance to education. Some of the schools we have
assisted are famous schools; some of the paintings we have bought
are famous paintings. At least one of them is very famous. A year
ago everyone had heard of St. Patrick's College but not everyone had
heard of Jackson Pollock. Perhaps there are more votes in education.
Solet me make a " political speech". Let me make this
statement wihout qualification: Education is the greatest single
achievement of the Labor Government. The prospects for education,
the prospects for our children, have been utterly transformed. Look
back to the situation before we came to office. There were vast
deficiencies in the States' education budgets; inequalities between
pupils, inequalities between schools, inequalities between States and
regions, were deeply and hopelessly entrenched. Working-class parents
were taxed so that money could be poured into wealthy schools that
needed assistance least. The Australian Government was giving nothing
not one cent to the recurrent costs of government schools. Whole
areas of education were neglected. Primary schools were downgraded in
favour of secondary schools. Needy secondary schools were downgraded
in favour of prosperous secondary schools. University fees were
restricting tertiary education to those who could afford it, Teachers'
colleges were ignored. Pre-schooling as a right of every Australian
child was practically unheard of. Technical education was the
Cinderella of the system.
On top of that on top of that gross pattern of neglect and
impoverishment education was bedevilled by a futile controversy
over " State aid". The Liberals' twin shibboleths of State aid and
State rights embittered and delayed every rational attempt to give
a new deal to Australian children. We have given that new deal. In
17 months we have scrapped the accumulated deadwood of ad-hoc grants,
patch-up subsidies and makeshift aid programs initiated by our
predecessors. We have given a new charter to the children of
Australia. The old obsession with State aid has been buried for good.
And remember this: State aid was as much an obsession of the right
as it was of the left, as much a preoccupation of government school
supporters as non-government school supporters. Where are the DOGS
now? I have not heard a word from them in this election. The DOGS
have had their day! The prejudice and negativism they promoted and
represented the bitterness they shared with their opponents at the
opposite extreme have disappeared. We have lifted the whole debate
on education out of a miasma of irrelevance and sectarianism. The
beneficiaries are the children of Australia and the generations of
children to come. / 2
-2-
What must strike any impartial observer of this debate is
the cynical opportunism of the Liberals. For years they decried any
attempt to improve the condition of our schools as an interference
with the rights of States. How often they told us that education
was a " State responsibility". When our programs for increased grants
to schools the Karmel funds came before Parliament last December,
the Liberals voted against them. They opposed the legislation. They
opposed the whole concept cf needs by insisting that we make extra
funds available to A-category schools that needed the money least.
Because of their doctrinaire attachment to the wealthiest schools
they threatened to block our entire program of reform, to prevent
promised funds going to the States even Liberal States for their
education programs, and to hold up the Australian Schools Commission
unless we agreed to stack it with their friends and supporters.
The Country Party and I give credit for this saw the folly of the
Liberals' ways. They voted for our measures while the Liberals
opposed them. I am not sure whether these events were more important
as a commentary on the Liberal attitude to our children's future or
as a commentary on Opposition unity.
I ask you to look at the attitudes of the Liberals now and
contrast it with what they were saying only five short months ago.
Five months ago they voted against our proposals. Today they say
they would match them! Now that an election is coming on, the Liberals
have discovered the value of our reforms. They promise to keep the
Australian Schools Commission if returned to power. They promise to
make the same funds available to schools. Of course, they also
promise to cut back or reduce the growth of Government spending.
The people will have to decide which promise they believe. I simply
ask whether anyone can believe a party or trust a party that within
the space of five months can change its mind completely on an issue
of such radical importance as the education of our children.
So here is the Liberal record on education; 23 years of
neglect, one year of obstruction, six months of silence, and two weeks
of contrition. For a generation they did nothing for the schooling of
the majority of Australian children. Their indifference and contempt
blighted the education of thousands of Australians. They condemned
Australian children to overcrowded classes, ill-equipped and understaffed
schools. They neglected the needs of disadvantaged schools
and isolated children. They neglected the needs of teachers' colleges.
Every other area of tertiary education received some support often
tardy and grudging support but teachers' colleges got nothing.
They particularly neglected the needs of the Catholic sector in both
primary and secondary education. Their aid to Catholic schools failed
to recognise the areas of greatest need and acknowledge the genuine
difficulties of the Catholic system. / 3
All that has been changed by our legislation. As a result
of our legislation Catholic schools, both primary and secondary,
whether systemic or not, receive recurrent assistance in direct
relation to their needs.
Our program of funding schools according to their needs.
replaces the old system of across the board per capita grants. The
introduction of the new program means that Catholic schools throughout
Australia will receive a total of $ 123 million for the years 1974 and
1975 instead of the estimated $ 76.4 million which would have been
available had the old per capita grants been maintained at the rate
which applied in 1973. New South Wales Catholic schools will receive
$ 47 million under this arrangement. These schools would have received
approximately $ 29 million under the per capita scheme operated by
the previous Government. It has been particularly unfair that some
Catholic school principals have criticised the Labor Government, which
has increased its grants for secondary schools, while making no
criticism of the N. S. W. Liberal Government whose grants for secondary
schools are much lower than those of the State Governments of
Queensland and Victoria.
In the case of non-systemic non-government schools like
St Patrick's College, the Karmel Committee made individual estimates
of the needs of each school, classifying them into eight categories,
ranking from H to A, in ascending order according to the level of
recurrent resources available to pupils at these schools.
St Patrick's was classified as Category G, indicating that the school
should receive recurrent grants at the rate of $ 85 per primary pupil
and $ 130 per secondary pupil in 1974 and $ 120 per primary pupil and
$ 190 per secondary pupil in 1975. As a result of these grants it
is estimated that your school will receive approximately $ 140,000 in
1974 and $ 203,000 in 1975 a total of $ 343,000 for the two years.
Had the previous government' s policy continued, and had the rate of
per capita grants remained unchanged, the school would have received
an estimated $ 220,000 for the two years. In effect, the operation of
the present scheme has resulted in an increase of 56% in recurrent
funds available from the Australian Government to St. Patrick's College.
Let me say a word about the treatment of disadvantaged
schools. We have recognised that certain schools are so deprived
and needy that they are entitled to assistance of a special kind,
apart from the normal criteria of need applied to other schools.
Catholic disadvantaged schools throughout Australia will receive an
additional $ 2.45 million during the 1974/ 75 biennium. Of this,
$ 890.000 will be provided for Catholic schools in New South Wales.
In addition, the Australian Government will make available $ 3.76 million
to disadvantaged schools to undertake building projects in 1974 and 1975.
Of this amount $ 1.3 million will be allocated to New South Wales.
This program was introduced by the present Government. There was no
comparable program of assistance to disadvantaged schools under the
previous Government. ./ 4
Finally, a word about Catholic and other non-government
teachers' colleges. Because of the neglect of these colleges in
the past, the Commission on Advanced Education has conducted an inquiry
into their needs and recommended support for them. The recommendations
are designed to give assistance by way of recurrent funds for 1974
and 1975. They are in two parts. Firstly, there is a basic provision
for each college which will enable it to meet in reasonable measure
the planned growth for 1974 and 1975, on the assumption that the
proportion of religious in the total staff remains as indicated in
the college submissions. Secondly, the Commission has recommended
an additional sum, over and above that allowed for in the basic
provision, to finance the replacement of religious by lay staff where
necessary. In New South Wales, the Commission has recommended support
for the Catholic College of Education on condition that by the end
of 1975 it has its completed plans for amalgamation with the Good
Samaritan Teachers College and a new institution is set up on a
suitable site. The Commission has also recommended support for
other teaching institutions, including the Catholic Teachers College
at Worth Sydney, the Guild Teachers' College and the Good Samaritan
Teachers College at Glebe Point.
Two weeks ago I wrote to Archbishop Carroll in these terms:
" As part of its education policy, I indicated that my
Government would support teachers' colleges in the same way as all
other tertiary institutions.
" The necessary measures have already been taken to include
government teachers' colleges fully under advanced education
arrangements, and in response to the request made to it last year the
Commission on Advanced Education has recently submitted a report on
financial provision for approved " private" teachers' colleges. The
Government is in the process of dealing with this report which
recommends that approved private teachers' colleges should receive
assistance with recurrent costs from 1 January 1974.
" I am writing to assure you that support will be provided
as soon as the normal parliamentary processes allow. The conditions
of support will be along the lines discussed with the colleges by the
Commission during its investigations and will be directed towards
the rational development of the institutions within the overall
tertiary program." I commend the great contribution of the Catholic system to
the education of Australia's children. For the first time, under this
Government, their true needs and just entitlements have been recognised.
As a result of our policies, Catholic education can look forward to a
secure and prosperous future within a secure and prosperous educational
system. The Christian Brothers have done much to raise the standards
of teaching in our schools and set a proud example of selfless
dedication to the interests of our children. This fine school, with
its fine traditions, exemplifies the best in Catholic education. Your
annual art exhibition is evidence of a lively concern for the cultural,
intellectual and spiritual health of your pupils and the community you
serve. I wish your exhibition every success. I have great pleasure
in declaring it open.