Category Archives: Australian education

Australia coronavirus live: health minister backs calls for global investigation into Covid-19 spread – latest updates

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Greg Hunt supports foreign affairs minister Marise Payne’s call for an independent review that must not be run by WHO as fresh privacy concerns raised over government’s contact-tracing app. Follow the latest news live

Hazzard has announced the $5,000 on-the-spot fine for people who spit or cough at healthcare workers has been extended now to include all workers.

Assistant police minister Karen Webb says that overnight, a 25-year-old man from Nowra was arrested for a number of offences including allegedly spitting at police officers.

Just in the last last week, I’ve had four matters raised with me by members across the state from people deliberately coughing or spitting on people ... It is vile and it is disgusting and unacceptable.

New South Wales health minister Brad Hazzard is providing an update on new cases in the state.

He says to 8pm last night there were 21 new cases of Covid-19, taking the state’s total number of confirmed cases to 2,957. There are 245 people being treated in hospital, including 21 in intensive care and 17 on ventilators.

“We’re doing much better than we could have expected at this point but I also want to remind the community this is a long game. It’s a team game. Probably at this point we aren’t very far into the game.

She looked at me and said minister probably if we’re lucky we’re 10 minutes into the first quarter. There is no room here for us to forget this is a long game and a game with a lot more to go.

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Are schools open or closed for term 2 amid coronavirus in Australia? State-by-state guide

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Many parents have been left confused about whether students can or should return to school after the Easter holidays

The position of the federal and state governments on whether to send children to school in term two while coronavirus social distancing rules are in force have many parents confused.

Throughout March the Morrison government opposed school closures on the basis of medical advice, but the issue was forced by Victoria bringing forward its school holidays, and other states and territories introducing pupil-free days to prepare for online learning.

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Independent schools demand federal government withdraws threat and guarantees ‘vital’ funding

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Education minister had said schools needed to offer in-person education or risk losing funding

Christian Schools Australia (CSA) has demanded the federal government withdraw a threat to independent schools and instead commit to guarantee funding even if enrolments drop off as a result of Covid-19.

On Thursday the education minister, Dan Tehan, wrote to all independent school associations ordering them to provide in-person education to children from term two or risk losing their federal funding.

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Australia coronavirus live update: education minister orders independent schools to reopen – latest news

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Dan Tehan wants all schools to provide in-person teaching to children whose parents want it. Follow live

The NRL season will recommence in late May, but it’s still unclear in what form it will happen.

#BREAKING: The NRL has announced a competition restart date of May 28. #9News pic.twitter.com/e5uwbe0fAj

Liberal Senator Sarah Henderson is calling for road blocks on the Great Ocean Road to force people to stay home this long weekend. @Kieran_Gilbert

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‘Clear as mud’: schools ask for online learning help as coronavirus policy confusion persists

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Despite national cabinet process aiming for consistency, states and territories now have a patchwork of responses

New South Wales Catholic schools have asked for the government’s help to take teaching online, warning it could take months to roll out and result in a “digital divide” between schools.

The chief executive of Catholic Schools NSW, Dallas McInerney, wrote to the NSW government on Tuesday seeking help, after the premier, Gladys Berejiklian, announced schools would stay open – although parents are encouraged to keep their children home where they can.

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Coronavirus school closures: dozens of Australian private schools move to online learning

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New South Wales teachers union warns it is ‘impossible’ for schools to practise social distancing measures recommended by the government

Dozens of independent schools across Australia are going ahead with shutdowns as the New South Wales teachers union warns it is “impossible” for them to practise social distancing measures recommended by the government.

On Tuesday, Pymble Ladies College in Sydney joined dozens of private schools in Victoria when it announced it would move to online classes from Thursday.

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Kylie Moore-Gilbert: jailed British-Australian not among 70,000 prisoners freed in Iran as coronavirus spreads

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Political prisoners, including the University of Melbourne academic, have overwhelmingly been excluded from furloughing

Iran has temporarily freed 70,000 prisoners from jails around the country out of fear coronavirus could spread through prisons unchecked, but British-Australian academic Kylie Moore-Gilbert has not been released.

Political prisoners have overwhelmingly been excluded from the furloughing of prisoners, with other dual nationals such as Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, an Iranian-born British aid worker, remaining imprisoned despite growing concerns for their health.

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Tasmania university to slash courses from 514 to 120 in wake of coronavirus impact

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An over-reliance on China and the emerging pandemic have forced reevaluation of university’s offerings, vice chancellor says

The University of Tasmania will slash hundreds of courses from its curriculum as part of a major overhaul driven in part by an “over-reliance on China” and the impact of the coronavirus.

On Tuesday, the university’s vice chancellor Rufus Black told staff the university was “facing sustained headwinds” to being sustainable, and would cut the number of courses on offer from 514 to fewer than 120 by next year.

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Melbourne professor quits after health department pressures her over data breach

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Vanessa Teague reported on a dataset of Medicare and PBS payments that was supposed to be anonymous but wasn’t

A prominent university professor has quit after the health department pressured her university to stop her speaking out about the Medicare and PBS history of over 2.5 million Australians being re-identifiable online due to a government bungle.

In 2016, Vanessa Teague, a cryptographer from the University of Melbourne, and two of her colleagues reported on a dataset, published on an open government data website by the federal government, of 2.5m Australians’ Medicare and PBS payment history dating back to 1984 that had supposedly been de-identified so people were anonymous.

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Tanya Plibersek cites ‘visible inequality’ at schools in call for fair education funding

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Shadow education minister emphasises education as key battle line against Coalition, while Greens leader Adam Bandt calls for end to public school fees

Labor will continue to make education funding a key point of difference to the Coalition, with a greater emphasis on the disparity between public and private schools’ spending on facilities, Tanya Plibersek has signalled.

In a speech delivered to the Australian Education Union on Friday, Plibersek warned both the government and internal critics arguing for lower social spending that “the fight for fair school funding is not over” and claimed that “visible inequality” in facilities suggests Australians care more about some children than others.

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Cabinet papers 1998-99: Coalition’s campaign to unleash the GST laid bare

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Tax reform dominated debate, as ministers discussed East Timor and the 2000 Olympics – and resisted climate action

On 1 July Australia’s goods and services tax will have been in place for 20 years. It is uncontroversial in concept, with no major party advocating its abolition. Every so often there are calls for it to be increased from 10% or expanded – calls that are usually rebuffed.

But just how fraught the GST was to introduce is one of the key insights from the release of cabinet papers by the National Archives of Australia, covering the years 1998 and 1999. There were other concerns: East Timor’s independence, the 2000 Sydney Olympics, the failed republican referendum, and familiar resistance to doing anything but the minimum on climate change.

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What happened? The policies Scott Morrison’s government appears to have abandoned

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Action to protect LGBT students, a payday lending crackdown and an integrity commission are among the Coalition’s lost causes

Governments should be judged not just on what they do with their time in office but also on what they don’t do.

There are only so many hours in a day, and so many parliamentary sitting weeks in a year (there were just 10 since the May election). Nevertheless it’s important to know not just what the top priorities are but also what’s been pushed to the backburner.

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Chaos in parliament over Coalition’s union-busting bill – politics live

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Scott Morrison announces cut in number of government departments as part of public service overhaul. All the day’s political news, live

Labor is moving a motion saying the government’s attempts to push the union-busting bill through without debate was “anti-democratic”.

Better still is this bit of the motion:

This is a prime ministerial tantrum, with the prime minister of Australia behaving like a juvenile schoolyard bully just because he didn’t get his way last week.

We’re now moving through the votes for the government’s union-busting bill.

A side note - this is the 100th division to take place in the House for this sitting fortnight.

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Chinese students in Australia speak: ‘Australia embraces all cultures while losing its own’

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They are at the centre of debates about freedom, nationalism and democracy, yet their individual voices are rarely heard

Chinese students in Australia have been accused of trying to stifle freedom of speech on campus, of attacking pro-democracy protesters and of undermining the quality of education at our top universities which are increasingly dependent on the money they bring.

They stand at the centre of many of our political debates as we navigate the increasing influence of China in our region, its attempts to infiltrate our politics and institutions, and Australia’s increasing economic dependence.

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Two Australian universities sever ties with Prince Andrew charity after Epstein interview

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The announcement by Bond University and RMIT follows the royal’s interview about his links to paedophile Jeffrey Epstein

Two Australian universities have severed ties with a business mentoring charity founded by Prince Andrew after the royal’s train-wreck interview about his links to the paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

The Pitch@Palace program – founded by the prince in 2014 – supports entrepreneurs and start-up companies and gives them the opportunity to pitch their idea to business leaders at places including Buckingham Palace.

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Former NSW fire chief says Coalition ‘fundamentally doesn’t like talking about climate change’ – politics live

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‘Do we simply get gagged?,’ asks Greg Mullins as NSW and Queensland bushfires rage on. All the day’s events, live

Greg Mullins continued:

This is very frustrating for this group of emergency chiefs, because had we spoken back in April, one of the things we would have said was try to get more aircraft on lease from the northern hemisphere, this is going to be a horror fire season.

We are only going to have seven of those large air tankers you saw at Turramurra saving homes the other day. They can be a decisive weapon. I have just come back from California - they had about 30 on one fire. But because the fire seasons are overlapping with the northern hemisphere, they are not available when we need them most.

On the meeting the former fire and emergency chiefs have been seeking with the prime minister and other responsible ministers about Australia’s fire preparations since April, Greg Mullins said:

I wrote to the prime minister on two occasions. I didn’t expect a response to the first letter in April, because of the election in May. I wrote a couple of months later, or a few months later, there was a response, saying he was unable to meet and a message saying minister Taylor would be in touch.

When I was able to speak to minister Taylor’s office, I did point out that he was probably not the right minister to speak to, with minister Littleproud, maybe the finance minister, but definitely the PM – he was unable to assist with that.

This government fundamentally doesn’t like talking about climate change.

I will probably say ... that is all I will say about that.

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Climate strike in Australia: everything you need to know about Friday’s protest

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Time and location for the 20 September school strike for climate change in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Perth, Canberra, Adelaide, Hobart and more

Thousands of Australian school students are again preparing to walk out of classrooms across the country to demand action on the climate crisis.

The global mass day of action will take place on Friday 20 September, three days before the United Nations climate summit in New York.

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Union forced to drop legal action against Wollongong’s western civilisation degree

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Backdown comes after university intervened to have its governing body sign off on Ramsay Centre degree despite it never being considered by its academic senate

The peak union for university academics and staff has been forced to drop legal action against the University of Wollongong over its approval of the controversial Ramsay Centre-funded western civilisation course.

The National Tertiary Education Union announced on Friday that it had withdrawn its action in the New South Wales supreme court over what it had described as the “unlawful” approval of the degree by the university late last year.

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Hecs debt repayment changes: why more people will be forced to pay off student loans

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The income threshold for repaying university fees has dropped to just $45,881. Here’s what you need to know

On Monday, the Hecs (Higher Education Contribution Scheme) repayment threshold fell by more than 11%.

From now on, anybody earning over $45,881 a year will have to start repaying their student loans – effective immediately. It was the largest percentage drop in the threshold in more than 20 years and the second largest drop in the history of the scheme.

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