There are moments when you glimpse just how large the ambition of the Albanese government might be. Last July, at the National Press Club, Education Minister Jason Clare was asked about the long, long failure of governments to do enough to make sure students can go to university. Despite many promises, the gap between rich and poor, those in the regions and those in the cities, persisted.

Education Minister Jason Clare with the universities report on Sunday. Credit: Peter Rae

In a long answer, Clare said, “we’re not going to tackle this problem if we think that we can solve all the problems at the door of university when someone turns 18”. He went on: “If children from poor backgrounds are three times more likely to fall behind at school, and they’re more likely to not finish high school, what chance do we have of them going on to TAFE or to university? If children from poor backgrounds are less likely to go to preschool than other children in Australia – and going to preschool is what sets you up for success – then what chance do we have of those young people making it all the way through the school system and then going to university?”

These may turn out to be little more than pretty words. Clare, as much of Australia found out when he subbed in for a COVID-ridden Albanese during the 2022 campaign, is good at words. But this is the year we will begin to get some sense of how serious he is, as the government begins responding to a series of reviews on childcare, schools and universities. Which will in turn give us a broader sense of how serious this government is.

The universities report landed yesterday. It found we need to jump from 60 per cent of Australians having a TAFE or university qualification to 80 per cent. Which brings us back to ambition: that is a huge shift in the shape of our society. More ambition still: to do that, the gaps mentioned above will have to close.

Illustration by Jim PavlidisCredit:

Money isn’t everything – but it’s a big part of the puzzle. Student support payments have to become easier to get. Interest charged on HECS must shift, to make sure debts don’t rise faster than wages. Then there are the gaps between universities. Right now, more prestigious universities make a fortune from international students. How do you make sure other universities have enough funding to deliver good degrees? Interestingly, part of the answer comes from building on the work of a previous Labor government: funding should work more like the Gonski schools model – introduced by the Gillard government – in which funding goes to institutions based on how much they actually need to educate the particular students they have enrolled.

The government won’t commit to everything yet. Nor should it, because not everything is as smart as it seems. The report recommends fees be more closely tied to future earnings potential, which sounds fair until you realise it could easily mean that rich students, less concerned about debt, become more likely to go into professions which pay more – which won’t do much for inequality.

But as interesting as any of the individual measures is, the gradual but significant shift in this government is towards a focus on inequality.

A few weeks ago, the government announced its stage 3 tax cut changes. As others noted, what had formerly seemed like a blurry list of forgettable cost-of-living measures suddenly, with more equitable tax cuts as the first item on the list, sharpened into something tangible. A similar thing happened with the right-to-disconnect laws, which as journalist Jennifer Hewett noted gave focus to a set of important but – to most of Australia – invisible industrial relations laws. This became still sharper with last week’s revelation that the Fair Work Commission will examine work-from-home arrangements.

QOSHE - Focus on fairness is an education, but Albanese’s ambition has yet to be tested - Sean Kelly
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Focus on fairness is an education, but Albanese’s ambition has yet to be tested

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25.02.2024

There are moments when you glimpse just how large the ambition of the Albanese government might be. Last July, at the National Press Club, Education Minister Jason Clare was asked about the long, long failure of governments to do enough to make sure students can go to university. Despite many promises, the gap between rich and poor, those in the regions and those in the cities, persisted.

Education Minister Jason Clare with the universities report on Sunday. Credit: Peter Rae

In a long answer, Clare said, “we’re not going to tackle this problem if we think that we can solve all the problems at the door of university when someone turns 18”. He went on: “If children from poor backgrounds are three times more likely to fall behind at school, and they’re more likely to not finish high school, what chance do we have of them going on to TAFE or to university? If children from poor backgrounds are less likely to go to preschool than other children in........

© The Sydney Morning Herald


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