Nationals

=**Nationals**=

Thank you for taking the time to express your thoughts and concerns to Senator Joyce in relation to qualified teacher librarian’s in every school. You raise some good points in your email, and I will endeavour to raise these points with Senator Joyce when I speak with him next. Unfortunately Senator Joyce is unable to respond to you personally but appreciates you taking the time to correspond. Kind Regards, Samantha MullerResearch/Electorate Officer Office of Senator Barnaby Joyce | Leader of the Nationals in the Senate |LNP Senator for Queensland | Shadow Minister for Regional Development, Infrastructure & Water PO Box 628 St George QLD 4487 |P (07) 4625 1500 | F (07) 4625 1511 | [|www.barnabyjoyce.com.au]
 * Senator Barnaby Joyce**

I received the following email from The Nationals senator Peter Langhorne

Dear Ms Plummer

Thank you for your letter to The Nationals relating to qualified teacher librarians in schools.

The Nationals support the proper training and resourcing of all teachers to ensure that they have the qualifications, experience and resources to do their job.

We will give more flexibility to school boards and principals to determine the priorities for their local area, including where resources need to be allocated.

The policy covers a range of other issues that will be of interest. You may wish to visit our website on [|www.nationals.org.au] and go to the policy section where our Regional Education Policy is set out in detail.

Yours sincerely

Peter Langhorne The Nationals Federal Secretariat.

**Malcolm Cole, Liberal National Party Candidate, Moreton, Qld**

Thank-you for your email. May I apologise that it’s taken me some time to respond, but as you’d imagine we are receiving quite a large volume of emails and letters in the office and I am endeavouring to answer each one personally.

As a former journalist, I am very supportive of government information being widely available, both on the web and in print where cost permits. I was a newspaper journalist and I have a real passion for “hard copy” documents – both periodicals and books. I am also very passionate about critical analysis. By this I don’t mean the kind of post-modern textual cynicism that often passes for critical analysis. I believe there is no substitute for wide reading and deep analysis of information gathered. In order to learn these skills and to develop a passion for this kind of self-education, children rely heavily on their teachers and teacher librarians. I am a little shocked to learn of the disparities across the nation in this area.

As a candidate, I am not in a position to make policy commitments on behalf of the Coalition, either in relation to the Senate Inquiry or the additional resources that you seek. I don’t want to be the kind of political aspirant who tells people everything they want to hear but is in reality unable to deliver on those commitments. Instead, I can give you my commitment that as a Member of Parliament I would take up these causes inside the Parliament and inside the Government should the Coalition be elected on August 21. Further, I would always be a passionate advocate for literacy. As a person who enjoyed the benefits of excellent librarians and teacher librarians, I do not need convincing of the importance of these roles.

In terms of cyber safety, we will have a little more to say in the coming days. However, I believe in the same approach as I have outlined in relation to reading and research. That is, children need to be educated in how to look after themselves on-line. We cannot hope to wrap them in cotton wool and protect them from all the personal threats that will arise on the internet. Just as we teach them to be discerning consumers of information, so we must teach them to be discerning users of the internet – to ‘see through” the advances of a stranger in a chat room in the same way we want them to “see through” unreliable information in Wikipedia.

This may not fully satisfy your request, but as I said it would be irresponsible and dishonest of me to make promises that I cannot be sure of keeping. However, I can and do promise to be a strong advocate for literacy and for all the resources needed to ensure all our children are wise and informed consumers of information.

Sincerely,

Malcolm Cole LNP Candidate for Moreton

Michael McCormack, Riverina (Wagga Wagga)

Thank you for your letter to The Nationals relating to qualified teacher librarians in schools.

The Nationals support the proper training and resourcing of all teachers to ensure that they have the qualifications, experience and resources to do their job.

We will give more flexibility to school boards and principals to determine the priorities for their local area, including where resources need to be allocated.

The policy covers a range of other issues that will be of interest. You may wish to visit our website on www.nationals.org.au and go to the policy section where our Regional Education Policy is set out in detail.

Regards, Michael