‘WE HANG THE PETTY THIEVES AND APPOINT THE GREAT ONES TO PUBLIC OFFICE’ – AESOP
The Byron Shire Echo • Volume 37 #34 • February 1, 2023 • www.echo.net.au
Edjamakashun pledges NSW election candidates make their case for addressing declining education standards Hans Lovejoy With Labor think tank, The McKell Institute, outlining a sharp decrease in literacy and numeracy skills, and underfunding, throughout state-run schools, NSW Labor have launched an education plan to create a $400 million Education Future Fund, as well as establishing a permanent and ongoing literacy and numeracy tutoring program. While local Greens MP, Tamara Smith, says a pay rise is instead needed to incentivise and retain teachers, Nationals candidate, Josh Booyens, has mocked Labor’s plan as a ‘magic beanstalk’, accusing federal Labor of not providing the NSW Liberal-Nationals government with adequate funding for NSW schools. Ballina Labor candidate and Lismore high school teacher, Andrew Broadley, said in Monday’s press release that his party’s fund and program will ‘end the underfunding of public schools’, and ‘ensure that NSW reaches 75 per cent of its schooling resource standard (SRS) by 2025 – two years earlier than the Liberal-Nationals government. This would take NSW Schools funding to 95 per cent of the SRS’. Broadley says a report released by the McKell Institute in December 2022 ‘showed that NSW public school students are not getting the investment they need’. The McKell Institute said on Monday that the state’s ‘alarming deterioration in literacy and numeracy standards will worsen, unless the state government matches the opposition’s commitment to
reach 100 per cent of the schooling resource standard (SRS)’. McKell Institute Executive Director, Michael Buckland, said, ‘In research released last year, the McKell Institute found that the average NSW public school student is currently underfunded by $1,550 to $1,629 every year’. ‘Our economy relies on skills and knowledge, without which we are doomed to falling prosperity and declining living standards. The NSW [Liberal-Nationals] government has unfortunately overseen the state’s decline in literacy and numeracy against other jurisdictions in our region, and around the world. Fully funding our schools should not be a partisan issue and we urge the government to match Labor’s commitment.’
Australia Day celebrations were held last week, but Mia Thom, Nickolla Clark, Delta Kay and Ella Noah Bancroft instead took part in Survival Day in Byron Bay. It recognises that Indigenous people and culture thrived continuously for around 60,000 years, and since January 26, 1788, mob have survived colonisation, discrimination, theft, massacre, imprisonment and forced assimilation, all of which was ‘lawful’ at the time. Photo Jeff ‘Mobbed But Not Forgotten’ Dawson
Improve pay and conditions: Greens Ms Smith told The Echo, ‘As the Greens NSW education spokesperson, and as an educator and member of the NSW Teachers Federation for over 20 years, I can say that Labor’s announcement disappointingly falls well short of the mark.’ ‘We need to attract 11,000 new public-school teachers in NSW over the next decade, and retain current teachers who are leaving the profession in droves. The Gallop Inquiry made it patently clear that only through improving pay and conditions, and adequately resourcing students in every public school will ▶ Continued on page 2
Tributes for Sara Tindley ▶ p4
North Coast News ▶ p6
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Calls to extend temp accom for insured Paul Bibby The one-year limit on temporary accommodation provided by some insurance companies to people whose homes went under in the flood must be extended. That was a key point of consensus at a meeting of flood-affected locals in Mullumbimby last week. As the anniversary of the disaster approaches, some are facing the prospect of losing their temporary accommodation because their insurance companies will only pay for one year of rent. ‘Of the many outcomes, none was
Cost of living is up, and so is… Richard Jones ▶ p8
more significant than accommodation,’ said one of the organisers of the meeting, Susan Fell. ‘A further wave of homelessness must be avoided.’ Ms Fell and the other meeting attendees are calling on the Northern Rivers Reconstruction Commission (NRRC) to make direct representations to the CEO of the Insurance Council of Australia (ICA) calling for the deadline to be extended. ‘There needs to be a public announcement by the ICA,’ Ms Fell said. ‘Until insurance companies and
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builders resolve the rebuilding of our homes, and our reinstatement, there is an increasingly high level of personal and community anxiety.’
lşſĕ ƐIJëŕ Ǟǝǝ ëǔĕĈƐĕĎ Other key outcomes from the meeting include a request that the NRRC provide official figures on how many homes were affected by the floods, including the number of residents who have been unable to return, and those who are living in substandard conditions. ‘This issue is estimated to affect more than 100 Mullum residents,’ Ms Fell said.
Explore local art spaces and courses ▶ p20
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