Education Revolution policy a sham: Latham
22 Apr 2009
Media release Mark Latham today added his voice to the growing list of figures who have described Julia Gillard's Education Revolution as a failure, according to Shadow Education Minister Christopher Pyne.
"To listen to the Federal Minister, Julia Gillard, talk about schooling is to realise she is clueless about what needs to be done," wrote Mark Latham today.
In the same article, Latham described a promise to close failed schools within "the Rudd government's so-called education revolution"" as ""typical of its style: using populist rhetoric to control the daily media agenda but failing to follow through with detailed plans." "The policy itself is a sham."
This follows hot on the heels of Professor Ross Fitzgerald's critique of Julia Gillard on Monday, in which he pointed out that ""the delivery of Gillard's supposedly 'revolutionary' educational packages has been far from smooth. This indicates a failure in her capacity to match action to her lofty rhetoric."" He went on to suggest that Australia deserves a full-time Education Minister.
"Last year Julia Irwin, the Labor Federal Member for Fowler, belled the cat on Julia Gillard's failure to deliver on its promise of an Education Revolution - saying that her own Government's policies were 'hardly a revolution' and that the real revolution was 'a long way off'," said Mr Pyne.
This week Ross Fitzgerald and Mark Latham have added their considerable weight to the growing body of opinion that for all her fine speech-making, Julia Gillard is just not up to the job of delivering an Education Revolution.
It is time for Julia Gillard to swallow her pride and admit that as Deputy Prime Minister to our travel-happy PM, she only has the time and capacity to take on one portfolio, and should give up the other.
Australia deserves better than a part-time Education Minister.