Election date now set

Post lifted from a fellow Queenslander. See the original for links

John Howard called the 2007 federal election yesterday, ending what many would have considered an almost marathon wait for the election to be set.

In calling the election, Howard cleverly rebutted Labor's slogan of `New Leadership', by stating that Australia does not need new leadership, or old leadership, but the right leadership. This is an intelligent way of deflecting attention on his age, and turning his experience into a plus. The debate then turns not on whether Howard has served for long enough, but whether he is still the best candidate. Given the fact that he is the incumbent, this is a good way of turning the nation's economic success into a powerful election weapon.

For the fourth consecutive occasion, many lefties will be wringing their hands, believing that this time will surely will the end of their great anti-hero, the Prime Minister that up to now has managed to elude defeat time and time again. As we have pointed out many times, they have still yet be bitterly disappointed.

We say this particularly since the Coalition's campaign will again focus on the economy, and who the voters can rely on to keep it strong. This campaign was so effective in 2004 that already we have seen the use of those infamous "L" plates used to describe the leader of the Opposition again. Coalition commercials will no doubt continually bombard our television sets with the same messages about the economy, just to make sure that everyone gets the idea. Those who think that this election is a foregone conclusion for Labor forget the fact that until now the Coalition has conserved fire, but will surely return fire consistently over the next six weeks.

The expected election issues will be:

- the economy (major issue)
- interest rates
- climate change
- education
- health
- industrial relations
- troops in Iraq (not a great difference here).

Non-issues, or points of agreement between the Government and the Opposition include:

- tough entry restrictions on unions entering workplaces
- the private health insurance rebate
- intervention in NT indigenous communities
- troops in Afghanistan.
- The Tasmanian pulp mill.

Some have accused Labor of too much "mee-tooism", as a result of the fact that Labor is in agreement with many Coalition policies. This however neglects the fact that Labor must to the centre in order to appeal to swinging voters, as have we previously pointed out. The only danger is that Labor is accused of lacking policies of their own, or of lackjing substance.

It will be interesting to see how this campaign goes. Certainly the Government has some good material at its disposal, for instance Kevin Rudd's stumble on productivity earlier this year on ABC radio, and his ignorance concerning the marginal tax rates. These can be used to show that Kevin Rudd does not know much about the Australian economy, and hence represents a risk to jobs and growth. If the Coalition are to have any chance at all, their election ads will have to be hard-hitting and brutally effective. The message has to always be that Labor is a risk, and hence cannot be trusted.

Labor in turn will have to do its best in minimising the economy's ability to undermine its campaign. It will be interesting to see how the `economic conservative' tag that Rudd has applied to himself will succeed in assuring the voters that the Labor party will be a safe option. Releasing an actual policy will be helpful to this end, otherwise Labor runs the real risk of being seen as good at spin and light on substance, a theme that the Coalition has been increasingly employed when attacking Mr Rudd.




Attempting to revive history education

AS expected, Prime Minister John Howard's intervention in the culture wars, represented by the proposed Australian history guide for years 9 and 10 of high school, has drawn a chorus of criticism from the usual suspects. State Labor education ministers are one in the argument that each of their history curriculum documents represents best practice and that the guide is superfluous and a political stunt. Historians such as the University of Melbourne 's Stuart Macintyre, author of The History Wars and a vocal opponent of the Howard Government's education polices, have criticised the guide as well meant but overly detailed, solipsistic and difficult to implement in the classroom.

As a result of a 1991 meeting of Australian education ministers, the school curriculum was divided into eight learning areas and history was re-badged as "time, continuity and change", disappearing into the amorphous and politically correct stew represented by the subject known as studies of society and environment.

While the secondary school curriculum in NSW, and more recently Victoria, gives history special status, treating it as a stand-alone subject and detailing significant events, people and historical forces that must be taught, the subject has not fared as well in other jurisdictions.

The more conservative view - where students are taught a narrative associated with significant historical events, individuals and historical forces that shaped Australia's growth as a nation - has been jettisoned in favour of an inquiry-based issues approach that emphasises what is local and contemporary. Teaching what US academic Jerome Bruner has termed the structure of a discipline has given way to so-called generic skills, dispositions and competencies. This is largely as a result of Australia's adoption of outcomes-based education, otherwise known as Essential Learnings.

The Tasmanian and the South Australian Essential Learnings approach defines curriculum in terms of broad and vacuous categories such as futures, identity, interdependence and thinking and communication. In Queensland, the main SOSE values are defined as peace, ecological and economic sustainability, social justice and democratic process, all with a politically correct slant. The West Australian Curriculum Framework document describes history as "time, continuity and change" and, instead of detailing what should be taught, provides teachers with generalised outcome statements, such as: "They (students) can identify the constructive and destructive consequences of continuity and change and describe examples of both evolutionary and revolutionary change."

Unlike the approach associated with SOSE, Howard's new Guide to Teaching Australian History in Years 9 and 10 treats it as a stand-alone subject, and its authors bite the bullet and stipulate in detail a series of topics, milestones and essential content that all students need to learn if they are to understand and appreciate the nation's past. Although it's being attacked as the product of a conservative ideology, it should be noted the new guide is inclusive when it suggests students should study history through a range of perspectives, including those of gender, the environment, and indigenous and everyday life.

History teaching, and education more broadly, was once based on a belief in essential content, and that some interpretations are closer to the truth than others and that evidence should be weighed impartially. But the SOSE curriculums argue that interpreting the past is subjective and clouded by each person's ideological baggage and that it is wrong to stipulate what must be taught about it.

In 1992, the new history within the Victorian curriculum was celebrated on the basis that "there is no single version of history that can be presented to students. History is a version of the past (that) varies according to the person and the times ... each generation reinterprets the past in the light of its own values and attitudes." The 2000 edition of the Queensland SOSE document says students should be told "knowledge is always tentative", that they should "critique the socially constructed elements of text"and understand "how privilege and marginalisation are created and sustained in society".

Instead of providing a clear narrative detailing Australia's unique cultural and social growth and valuing what we hold in common, the SOSE approach emphasises diversity and difference. The Tasmanian curriculum, in explaining what is meant by social responsibility, emphasises the need to endorse "multiple perspectives" and "diverse views".

The South Australian curriculum, in outlining the importance of students having an understanding of cultural and global connections, also emphasises diversity and difference, as does the ACT curriculum, under the heading "Australian perspectives", in saying that students should experience the "diversity of Australian life".

The way studying Australian history is described in the Victorian curriculum also stresses diversity and multiple influences. Significant is that the new federal guide, in opposition to the idea of cultural relativism, acknowledges under the perspective "beliefs and values" the importance of "the influence of Christian churches and the liberal democratic philosophies" that underpin and safeguard our unique way of life.

A 1999 report, The Future of the Past, funded by the federal Government and written by historian Tony Taylor of Monash University, concludes that "Australian history in schools is characterised by lack of continuity, topic repetition and lack of coherence". The national history report also includes an observation by Monash University historian Mark Peel that many students enter university with a fragmented historical understanding.

Peel observed that while they might be strong in terms of questioning interpretations and appreciating the contribution of those voices normally excluded, such as Aborigines and women, undergraduate students lacked an understanding of the larger picture or the ability to place isolated events and issues within the broader context. Peel states: "Students seem anxious about the absence of a story by which to comprehend change, or to understand how the nation and world they are about to inherit came to be. They do have maps of the past. Their maps are more likely than mine to focus on particular visual images, those snatches of documentary film or photographs (that) increasingly encapsulate the past. Indeed, their sense of the world's history is often based on intense moments and fragments that have no real momentum or connection."

In a speech given at the Queensland Teachers Union conference in 2005, Australian Education Union president Pat Byrne effectively argued that the cultural Left had extended its influence in and through the education system. Byrne said: "We have succeeded in influencing the curriculum development in schools, education departments and universities. The conservatives have a lot of work to do to undo the progressive curriculum." Although yet to be translated into classroom practice, the new guide to Australian history suggests that Byrne should not be overconfident.

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Wholesale hospital takeover ruled out

The Federal Health Minister Tony Abbott says he will not commit the Commonwealth to taking over all of Tasmania's public hospitals. The Australian Medical Association this morning called on the federal government to either to own and manage all of the states public hospitals or none. The Commonwealth has already intervened at the Mersey Hospital in the state's north west and has also hinted it could do the same at the Launceston General Hospital.

But Mr Abbott says they will not manage all of the states public hospitals and has urged Tasmanians who are upset about the health system to reflect it at the ballot box. "My message to people is if they don't like what the State Government has done, they shouldn't vote Labor," Mr Abbott said. "State Labor created this mess and Federal Labor would just make it worse."

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Hope for toad problem

Not even a Greenie could love Northern Australia's toad plague



Scientists have made an intriguing discovery that could help the fight to eradicate cane toads. They have found the fastest toads leading the westward invasion across Australia's Top End - the ones with the longest legs - have a remarkably high incidence of spinal disease. And they are hoping with a bit of biological engineering they can take even more spring out of their step.

Biology professor Rick Shine says the toads' fast-paced spread could help bring about their demise. "What we discovered is that there's a real cost to that behaviour, and that the toads at the invasion front have got a remarkably high frequency of spinal arthritis," he said.

Professor Shine says scientists in Darwin recently stumbled on a peculiar phenomenon: that the fastest, fittest toads - particularly the ones with the longest legs - often have huge lumps on their backbones. He says this suggests that those toads leading the invasion are developing serious spinal problems. "It's sort of the mathematics of evolution: any individual that slows down gets left behind," he said. "The only animals you get at the invasion front are the ones that are the descendants of the ones that went fastest, who in turn are the descendants of the ones that went fastest. "So it's a cumulative process where any characteristic that enables toads to go quicker and quicker ends up at the invasion front, and it reaches the stage where it's pushing the toads' body plan about as far as it can go. "So we start to see these rather horrific spinal problems developing."

Professor Shine says the discovery is bolstering hopes that with a bit of biological tinkering, the toads could at least be slowed down, if not reduced in number. "The arthritis is partly driven by a soil bacteria; normally it's all over the place, and it normally doesn't cause any problems except for people who have got immune problems," he said. "It looks like the toads' immune system is under such pressure that they're actually now vulnerable to attack by these otherwise very benign bacteria. "And that kind of gives us a hint that maybe the toads' immune systems are a real Achilles heel that we might be able to exploit in looking for ways to control cane toads."

Professor Shine says researchers are now looking at a worm parasite that afflicts older toads and frogs, to see if it can be developed against the wider toad population. "We've taken a relatively simple-minded ecological and behavioural approach - the idea being that rather than jumping out there trying to kill toads, maybe the first step is to try to understand them," he said. "Maybe with a better understanding of the ecology of toads we'll get a much better position to work out how to control them."

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