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• Friday October 6th, 2006

I found Julie Bishop’s rant about education and the need for a Federal Board of Studies fascinating. I don’t really have opinion either way on what should be taught - I think kids today have bigger problems than curriculum alone when it comes to understanding why there are issues in education. But what I found interesting was the idea that someone who is not a subject matter expert on the education system can make sweeping claims about the education system and people have to respond as if that person has a clue. Julie Bishop isn’t a teacher, she’s never worked in a school - she’s an ex-lawyer (managing partner no less) from Clayton Utz. She attended Harvard and I’d be surprised if she’d stepped foot in a public school during her entire education. The same applies to Tony Abbot - the man makes sweeping claims about medicine, medical research and ethics whilst having zero expertise in the area. He’s not a Doctor, not a medical researcher or an ethicist. Indeed in the arena of his opinions on abortion - he can’t have one in the first place. But yet off he rants - solely basing his opinion on his religious beliefs and the confused ideas of an occasionally morally bankrupt archaic theological quagmire we like to call the Catholic Church. If i can draw a parralel to the corporate world - when you select a CFO or a CIO - you choose someone who knows somethng about the job - who has worked in the field, probably has qualifications in the area and understands the field in detail. Why? Because they have a clue. The same goes for the medical world - personally I’d prefer a qualified professional treating me for some illness instead of some quack faith healer. I guess what annoys me is that too many Minister use their portfolios as their personal soap-boxes and as forums in which to advance their own personal beliefs instead of what is best for the people they are supposed to be representing. I don’t particularly care that Tony Abbot is Catholic - personally I don’t like the Catholic Church but I’ve got nothing against Catholics in general - but I do care if as the Health Minister Tony Abbot advances his religious beliefs as fact/policy rather than the far more factual opinions of actual medical professionals. As should Julie Bishop refrain from attempting to advance her own ideological objectives and rather actually try to do something practical about education - say like funding schools and reducing class sizes and providing additional support for those children that need it.