Julia Gillard is facing her toughest test in a career that has soared so smoothly that almost no effort appears necessary. Her widely acclaimed success as deputy prime minister, however, owes a great deal to hard work, raw talent and an even temperament that eludes Kevin Rudd. But her skills will be severely stretched as she confronts the challenges looming in her most important portfolio, education.
Gillard is on top of her general job as deputy prime minister. Few seem bothered even when she invites controversy by the unusual nature of her visit to Israel later this week. Normally senior cabinet ministers accept an official government invitation to visit another county. But Gillard is leading a delegation of 40 politicians, business executives, academics and conservative newspaper columnists to the Jewish state at the invitation of a pro-Israeli lobby group, the Australia Israel Cultural Exchange. Although Australia backs the establishment of a separate Palestinian state, it would be surprising if a deputy prime minister accepted an invitation from a private pro-Palestinian organisation to visit Gaza.
Gillard seems untroubled in her other major portfolio, industrial relations. As promised in the 2007 election campaign, Gillard last week released details of how she will abolish the Australian Building and Construction Commission, but transfer most of its tough coercive powers to an inspectorate within her new body, Fair Work Australia. Gillard knew she as on a political winner at a recent union conference in Brisbane when she refused to yield to protests against the coercive powers, which apply only to workers in the construction industry. Gillard insists she needs a “tough cop on the beat” in the building sector.
However, even moderate union officials argue that there is no reason for treating building workers differently to anyone else suspected of breaking the law. In this view, investigating criminal behaviour is a job for the police, not a new IR tribunal. However, Gillard shepherded the necessary legislation through a meeting of the parliamentary Labor party last Wednesday.
Those who are compelled to attend the inspectorate’s hearings will be denied the long-standing legal right to silence. Instead, they can be jailed if the refuse to answer questions, usually aimed at gathering evidence against a fellow workers. Because most voters don't seem worried about the removal of traditional legal protections, any continuing union protests are likely to fall on deaf ears. But Gillard’s political difficulties will get harder on the education front.
This is not how it appeared in February when the government announced that it would stimulate the construction sector by spending $14.7 billion on school buildings. Almost all this huge sum is due to be spent in just two years, 2009-10 and 2011-12. Trying to shovel out so much money so quickly soon exposed problems which The Australian newspaper, in particular, has been exposing with undiluted enthusiasm.
Money is reportedly going to schools which are about close; some schools with good gyms or libraries are being told to build another one rather than new classrooms; expensive builders are supposedly preferred to local firms; opportunities to construct environmentally friendly buildings are being missed; private schools with first class facilities are getting millions of dollars and so on.
State education departments are creating some of these problems. Gillard has dismissed other reports as inaccurate. But mismanagement and waste are almost inevitable when Gillard boasts that every primary school is suddenly being turned into a construction site. The government wants quick action to combat the recession, but it would have been better to shift some of the $14.7 billion to other projects, then wait spend more on school buildings at a considered pace. Another option would be to divert part of the $14.7 billion into improved staffing in schools.
Gillard's political difficulties will intensify once it is realised that the operating grants for schools and universities are being squeezed to help bring the budget back into surplus after the money borrowed for the stimulus packages is spent. If it wanted to, the government could achieve a surplus budget and still boost recurrent spending on education. All that is required is to carve into the billions of dollars squandered to middle and upper class welfare. But Gillard shows no desire for this fight.
The budget shows that spending on government schools (excluding the one-off $14.7 billion capital works program) will increase by an average of less than 1.5 percent a year in real terms until 2012-13. Spending is expected to remain around this level, although real economic growth is projected at 4 percent a year. Clamps will remain on operating funding for universities as the government struggles to eliminate budget deficits, while spending on welfare and defence is exempt from tight caps.
As the financial pressures mount, Gillard can expect increased questioning of her decision to impose narrowly based tests of student performance. Last week, a leading advocate of encouraging creativity among children Sir Ken Robinson told the ABC’s 7.30 Report the repetitive testing of knowledge in narrow subjects was a “blight” on schools. Gillard copied this sort of testing from the US and the UK. More parents might share Robinson’s views once they realise that neither of these countries rank highly in international comparisons of educational achievement.