Comical Julia thinks its all going really well

Sounding very much like the former Iraqi Minister for Information, dubbed Comical Ali, Julia Gillard failed to address the growing list of disasters in her portfolio at the Press Club today, while taking credit for reforms begun under the Coalition, Christopher Pyne Shadow Minister for Education said.

"Comical Julia claimed the trades training centre program was on track and being delivered as promised. Before the election Labor promised a trade training centre in 'all 2650 high schools in Australia," Mr Pyne said.

"The truth is only one centre has being built two years into the program. Schools are being forced to pool resources, building in some cases 1 centre for 10 schools. Students will have to use the trades training centre on time share once they're finally built," he said.

Comical Julia mentioned the Computers in Schools program that has delivered barely a quarter of the promised computers, with the rest due by 2011. She also didn't mention the program has blown out by $1.2 billion and has been derided by education experts.

Comical Julia spoke of the Building the Education Revolution but forgot to mention the systemic waste and mismanagement leading to an investigation by the auditor-general.

Comical Julia did mention NAPLAN testing, but forgot to give credit to the former Coalition Government who introduced NAPLAN testing in the first place which paved the way for the My School website.

Similarly the Coalition's plan for a national curriculum which was adopted by Labor, according to Comical Julia it was her idea all along.

Meanwhile the youth allowance fiasco impacting thousands of students didn't even rate a mention in the speech.

"Clearly the Minister can't manage to deliver the programs in her own portfolio, despite what she says. It is time for the Kevin Rudd to appoint a full-time Education Minister," he said.

February 24, 2010

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