Liberals

=Liberals=

Thank you for your recent email to the Leader of the Opposition, Tony Abbott. As you may be aware, the Prime Minister has called a federal election. Unfortunately, from Opposition, we do not have the resources to respond to your email in detail during the campaign period, but your concerns will be brought to Tony’s attention and that of the Coalition Team. After three years of Labor Government failures, Australians now have a choice. Broken promises, increased cost of living pressures, massive debt, a Budget deficit, waste and mismanagement and new taxes are all placing unnecessary pressures on Australians. Further, Labor have removed a Prime Minister quickly and ruthlessly, ignoring the wishes of Australian voters. But it is the same government with the same problems creating the same mess. I hope you will get behind Tony in the weeks ahead as he seeks to stand up for Australia and take real action to end the waste, repay the debt, stop the taxes and ease the cost of living pressures on families. If you would like to read more detailed policy information please go to www.liberal.org.au.
 * Tony Abbott** 22 July 2010


 * Christopher Pyne, Shadow Education Minister**

Thank you for your further correspondence regarding the need for a teacher librarians. I have not forgotten our correspondence from last year on this matter, and I will certainly give the report close consideration when it is released by the House of Representatives Committee on Education and Training. Thanks for taking the time to keep me updated. Yours sincerely Christopher Pyne


 * Bob Baldwin, MP, Paterson NSW**

Thank you for your e-mail, I appreciate your taking the time to write. The Paterson electorate covers an area of approximately 9,603 sq km and includes the towns of Bulahdelah, Medowie, Dungog, Forster/Tuncurry, Gloucester, Hawks Nest, Morpeth,Tilligerry Peninsular, Tomaree Peninsular, Paterson, Raymond Terrace, East Maitland and Stroud. For this reason we receive quite a large volume of faxes, letters, e-mails and phone calls each day and while our staff aim for a quick turnaround in correspondence - unfortunately this is not always possible. However, if you have not heard back from anyone at the office within 7-14 days, please telephone the office on the numbers listed below. If the matter is urgent please phone 1300 656 840, or if you are not in the electorate, 02 4983 1330. To save disappointment we should advise that correspondence from outside the electorate is not given the priority that correspondence within the electorate is given unless it is a matter for the Shadow Ministerial Defence Portfolio. Should you wish to resubmit your email with your name & address, it will be afforded priority. That said, many thanks for your message, and we will endeavour to get back to you as soon as possible. Regards, Bob The Hon. Bob Baldwin MPFederal Member for PatersonShadow Minister for Defence Science, Personnel & Assisting Shadow Minister for Defence Electorate Office:35 Sturgeon St. or PO Box 156 Raymond Terrace NSW 2324Toll free: 1 300 656 840; Ph: 02 4983 1330; Fax: 02 4987 5444

Thank you for your email to Senator Barnett. Your correspondence will be brought to the Senator's attention. Kind regardsCaroline Donaghy Personal Assistant to Guy Barnett Chairman, Coalition Scrutiny of Government Waste CommitteeLiberal Senator for Tasmania 33 George Street, Launceston Tasmania 7250 Phone (03) 6334 1755 Fax (03) 6334 1624
 * Guy Barnett, Senator, Tasmania**

Thank you for contacting the office of Jamie Briggs MP, Federal Member for Mayo. Your feedback is greatly appreciated and has been forwarded to Jamie for his consideration. Yours sincerely, The Office of Jamie Briggs MPFederal Member for MayoPh: (08) 8398 5566
 * Jamie Briggs MP, Federal Member for Mayo.**


 * 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

This is an automatically generated response. Thank you for your email to Kelly O'Dwyer MP, Federal Member for Higgins. Ms O'Dwyer receives many email messages from around Australia and overseas, as well as written correspondence, personal visits and phone calls. Priority must be given to local residents of Ms O'Dwyer's electorate of Higgins, which means that she may not be able to respond to all correspondence from other locations. If you are a local resident, please provide your residential address to ensure a response. Correspondence which does not supply a residential address will not receive a response. If you live outside the electorate, you may wish to contact your local Federal MP or Senator. To find your MP, please visit http://www.aec.gov.au/esearch/ Your assistance is appreciated. Kelly O'Dwyer MP Member for Higgins
 * Kelly O'Dwyer, MP, ACT**

Thanks for your email. I am very sorry about the delay in my response; as I’m sure you can appreciate things have been quite hectic lately and only now am I starting to clear through the backlog of emails that have built up over the past few weeks.
 * Jason Wood, MP, La Trobe, Vic.**

 I really appreciate you passing on your views, experiences and insights of the challenges in our schools, and welcome your ideas about how to provide the best possible educational opportunities for our children.

 The Opposition shares your views that all staff in schools, including teachers and teacher-librarians need to be appropriately rewarded and supported, in order to deliver the best possible educational outcomes.

 However, as you may be aware, the States and Territories have primary responsibility for government schools. They run the schools, appoint the teachers, librarians and the staff. Controlling these leverages creates a framework of incentives, but sometimes not very good ones. The incentives need to be right in order that schools perform to their best with high academic standards, encourage good staff and proper accountability.

 We do certainly acknowledge, as you have pointed out in your email that Labor should consider the impact with regard to the all the new libraries being built under the Rudd Government’s Building the Education Revolution program with respect to staffing.  As you have pointed out, we will certainly consider the finding from the House Standing Committee into school libraries and teacher librarians in Australian schools as part of this process with regard to this issue.

 This concern can be added to a growing list under the Rudd Labor Government’s record in education. Promising an ‘education revolution’ before the election they have delivered little. Consider Labor’s record:

 • Broken promise to build 260 childcare centres across Australia and ‘ending the double drop-off’ now only building 38 childcare centres.  • Broken promise to build a Trades Training Centre in all 2650 high schools in Australia, with one school in ten building a centre that will have to be time-shared.  • Failed to deliver the Computers in School program, with only a quarter of the 1,000,000 computers promised on desks in schools with one year of the program to go.  • Lost billions of dollars in the School Hall program due to widely reported rorting, price gouging, waste and mismanagement.

 Please rest assured, I have noted your comments that schools need to be appropriately staffed so that teacher- librarians are able to provide the appropriate forms of assistance to students. Policies in order to appropriately support and reward school staff such as teachers and teacher-librarians, is an issue that the Opposition is taking most seriously.

 Thanks again for emailing me about this issue.

 Kind regards,

 Jason Wood

 Time: Wednesday August 11, 2010 at 6:53 pm