Equality

PM pays his son to dish up spam
By Mike Seccombe
The 27th of August 2004

A Sydney-based software company, one of whose directors is the Prime Minister's son, has been "spamming" voters with Liberal Party election material.
Tim Howard's company, Net Harbour, is taking advantage of a loophole in the Government's anti-spam laws to open a new front in the election propaganda war, via unsolicited email.
Last night the NSW director of the party, Scott Morrison, confirmed it had entered into a "a contractual arrangement with Net Harbour", involving a curious round-robin of payments.
"Because it's a contractual arrangement involving the PM's son," Mr Morrison said, "... and involves the Bennelong campaign, Mr Howard took the decision to personally fund the service, to provide the funds to enable us to do that, out of his own pocket.
"He made the funds available to the division once we entered into the agreement, to make sure the division wasn't out of pocket."
Mr Morrison refused to say how much Mr Howard was paying the party to pay his son's company.

Laws passed last year made it illegal for commercial operators to send unsolicited emails, but allowed an exemption for charities and political parties.
A spokesman for Net Harbour said yesterday that it was the only consultancy in Australia employing the American-style campaigning technique, and was working for the Liberal Party.
On its site, Net Harbour promises to deliver "complete constituent contact" via its "ePolitics" operation. It describes itself as working "in partnership with conservative political parties at electoral, state and national level to deliver online campaigns".
The deal between the state Liberal branch and the Howards, senior and junior, was news to the federal organisation.
The party's federal director, Brian Loughnane, said yesterday afternoon that he was not aware of a contractual arrangement
between the party and Tim Howard's company. "I'll have to investigate," he said. "But it could be somebody's just doing it as a favour ... In the normal course of events I'd expect to know. I sign the cheques. I haven't signed any cheques for Net Harbour."
One recipient of the e-bulletins - which appear under the letterhead and picture of the Prime Minister - said she had been spammed twice in the past month.Alana Hay, of Sylvania, said she was angry about it.
Although the emails purported to come from "John Howard, MP, Member for Bennelong", she neither lived nor worked within the electorate.
Ms Hay said she had no political connections and had certainly not sought Liberal Party campaign information. "What I want to know is, how did they get my address?"
No answers to her questions were forthcoming yesterday.
Net Harbour's spokesman promised the company's managing director, Brad Mancken, would call back, but he did not.
Mr Morrison refused to say how Net Harbour got hold of personal email details, or how the party was able to send spam referring to the recipient by her first name.

SMH 27-8-4

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/08/26/1093518006795.

Teachers are upset that they are not paid enough. But the starting salary is about $46,235.00 pa, straight out of training with no experience! Many people work for twenty years without earning as much per annum. Teachers also get pay rises based on years of service. Is this fair? Well they want more!
They are deeply disappointed about a 12% pay rise. When the CPI is less that 3%!
$107,000.00 a year for principles, I would guess this would be right for someone supervising about 40 staff. But do they?

I say cut their salary until they stop teaching our kids their political views, till they regain control of the classroom and till they no longer need to take stress leave because they are frightened of students.

Teacher pay rise to cost $700m

By Kelly Burke, Education Reporter

The 10^th of June 2004

The State Government faces a $350 million hole in its budget planning and the threat of more industrial unrest after the Industrial Relations Commission yesterday awarded teachers a 12 per cent pay rise over two years.

The size of the increase - double what it argued it could afford over the two years - has increased pressure on the Government to slash the education budget.

But teachers, upset that the full bench of the commission stopped well short of their demands for salary justice, warned this would only invite more strike action.

The Minister for Education, Andrew Refshauge, refused to be drawn on where the extra money would come from. The government response would be detailed in the June 22 state budget, he said.

Dr Refshauge, who had previously argued that the Government could not afford an increase of more than 6 per cent over two years, yesterday welcomed the commission's decision to award government school teachers twice that figure.

The total cost to the state budget will be $700 million.

The Government does not anticipate flow-on pressures from other public sector workers, given the award was based on a complex work-value case.

"We have always agreed that teachers deserve a pay rise," Dr Refshauge said.

"We accept [the] decision and will pay the teachers what the umpire has awarded."

But teachers said the decision to award 3 per cent on top of an interim 5.5 per cent increase, followed by a further 3.5 per cent at the beginning of 2005, represented less than half the 25 per cent they were fighting for.

The president of the NSW Teachers Federation, Maree O'Halloran, said teachers were deeply disappointed.

She refused to rule out further industrial action if funding for existing education programs suffered in the looming budget.

"This was a once-in-a-decade opportunity for the Government to lift the status of the teaching profession so that our schools and TAFE colleges can attract and retain teachers and ensure quality public education for our students," Ms O'Halloran said.

"We now face the prospect of ongoing teacher shortages, and instead of raising the profession to where it should be in our society, teachers are given a morale-sapping decision."

Dr Refshauge dismissed the suggestion that NSW was suffering a teacher shortage, pointing to an increase of as many as 10 points in University Admissions Index scores for some teaching degrees over the past two years.

NSW teachers were the country's highest paid, with starting salaries now exceeding $46,000 a year and senior teachers (eight years or more experience) earning more than $66,000.

At the top end, the salary of a grade one high school principal will jump more than $6000, to just under $107,000 a year.

While acknowledging sweeping curriculum changes and the growing complexity and demanding nature of teachers' work, the commission said its decision was "modestly tempered" by the Government's economic evidence.

Before yesterday's decision, government sources indicated that a large pay rise would mean cuts to a raft of government departments, including the Department of Education and Training and the NSW Board of Studies.

The Department of Education is already halfway through a restructure to save $70 million, with at least 800 of its 3500 staff heading for redundancy in the cost-cutting process.

Dr Refshauge recently commissioned the Government's waste watchdog, the Council on the Cost of Government, to conduct a review of the Board of Studies, the state's curriculum authority.

Headed by Percy Allan, a former head of Treasury, the council will analyse the board's programs and is expected to recommend funding cuts.

SMH 10-6-4

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/06/09/1086749784829.html

Commission halves teachers' pay rise

Wednesday, the 9^th of June 2004

Teachers in New South Wales have been awarded a 12 per cent pay increase over two years.

That is about half of the teachers' original pay claim, which asked for a 25 per cent rise.

The Industrial Relations Commission (IRC) handed down the decision, which will see teachers keep the 5.5 per cent already awarded.

They will get a further 6.5 per cent in two increments - the first payment will be on July 1 this year with a further 3.5 per cent next year.

The commission concluded a wage case last year to grant teachers a 25 per cent pay rise but the State Government re-opened the case, presenting evidence on its capacity to pay.

Education Minister Andrew Refshauge has welcomed the decision, labelling it as "fair".

He says the Government will abide by the umpire's decision, and has called on the teachers union to do the same.

But he has refused to say whether it will be paid for out of the existing education budget.

"It's $700 million total, that obviously has an affect on the whole of Government, on the budget, we'll determine this and be announcing it at the time of the budget," he said.

"We'll be looking at how this gets effectively funded."

Teachers Federation president Maree O'Halloran says the union is disappointed with the decision and remains angry about the Government's late intervention.

The teachers held two one-day strikes to protest against the Government's actions.

She says the union will call meetings of members to discuss further action.

"Certainly we'll be going back to our members but I can assure you that I speak for teachers across New South Wales when I say that we are bitterly disappointed," she said.

"We believe that the Carr Government has made a wrong decision to interfere in the case and that decision will adversely impact on our public schools for the future."

SMH 9-6-4

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/s1128305.htm