Education : journal of the N.S.W. Public School Teachers Federation

Call Number
Nef 331.8809944 EDU
Created/Published
Sydney : The Federation, 1919-2021
Issue
Vol. 52 No. 03 (3 Mar 1971)
Images
8
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Text

Education  

JOURNAL OF THE NEW SOUTH WALES TEACHERS FEDERAION  

« SbBVMMS  

JB  

Registered crt the G.P.O. Sydney for transmission by post as newspaper  

Vol. 52, No.  

MARCH 3, 1971  

Price: Three cents  

Where did the  

extra money  

come from?  

Department’s  

TV campaign  

in elections  

The Department of Education’s pub-  

licity campaign has been the subject of  

much comment both inside and outside  

Parliament. Mr. Hills, leader of the  

State Opposition, said that it was “a  

waste of public money and complete  

misuse of public funds by the Govern-  

ment for purely political purposes”.  

At the beginning of January, few  

days before the election date was an-  

nounced, the Department launched  

new campaign which included tele-  

vision commercial entitled Numbers are  

Important.  

POLITICAL COMMENT  

The Australia Party regarded this  

commercial as political comment by  

government department during elec-  

tions, and considered issuing an injunc-  

tion to prevent it being screened. How-  

ever, the Federation of Australian Com-  

mercial Television Stations stepped in  

with the following statement:  

“The Broadcasting and Television  

Act very definitely lays down that no  

election issue may be commented on  

from midnight on the preceding Wednes-  

day, February 10, until the close of the  

poll at eight o’clock on Saturday, Feb-  

ruary 13. The law allows no excep-  

tion  

“All stations were advised that no  

announcement dealing with education,  

and, specifically those furnished, by the  

Teachers’ Federation and the Education  

Department, could be shown during the  

period prohibited by law, because of  

education being an election issue.”  

The Federation had booked its cam-  

paign to end on Wednesday, February  

10. The Department, on the other  

hand, had booked its campaign to run  

right through the prohibited period  

course of action prevented by the  

television ruling.  

‘FOUR CORNERS’ COMMENT  

The A.B.C. television programme Four  

Corners ran segment on this question  

on February 13. It commented on the  

Education Department’s advertising by  

saying:  

“The Federation of Commercial  

Stations felt that the Education Depart-  

ment commercial was election matter.  

If one agrees with this ruling, it means  

that propaganda material was televised  

at public expense right through the elec-  

tion period.  

“How much public money was in-  

volved? The Department declined to  

reveal the cost of the campaign, though  

it did say that it was financed entirely  

out of the funds of the public relations  

section which has an annual budget of  

$55,000.  

“Our estimate of the cost of the cam-  

paign on television and in the press is  

minimum of $55,000, the same as  

the annual budget. If this estimate is  

near the truth, where did the extra money  

come from, and could such an amount  

be appropriated without the Minister’s  

knowledge and approval?  

“But the largest issue remains the  

ethical one should Government De-.  

partment, and it’s not possible to sepa-  

rate Department and Minister  

answer criticism by spending public  

money on television commercials or  

other advertising. Such method would  

seem to make enormous inroads into  

the traditional methods, whereby the  

Parliament or the press statement deals  

with such matters.”  

Federation makes  

education  

major issue  

in elections!  

Below:  

Illustrations from Federation election  

material.  

Top left: From “The Critical Years” —  

young boys who could well be in  

overcrowded classes.  

Bottom left: “Cutler’s Last Stand”—  

one of the two advertisements  

placed in metropolitan newspapers  

on the two days prior to  

the elections.  

Top right: From TV commercial —  

Cathy, the little five-year-old  

who could not get into school.  

Bottom right: From “The Critical  

Years” the primary principal  

(in fact, Mr. F. Clarke, Federation  

Vice-President) who is very  

concerned with the needs of  

primary education.  

Education was an important factor in  

the recent State elections which resulted  

in 6% swing against the Liberal Gov-  

ernment. The Teachers’ Federation  

actively participated in the election as  

the result of Council resolution which  

said:  

“Council declares that Federation  

will campaign against the State Govern-  

ment at the next election on the issue  

of its repudiation of its 1965 election  

promise to set up an Education Com-  

mission and on other educational issues  

using all possible means to place the  

following facts before the people of New  

South Wales.  

(a) The Government’s cynical attitude  

towards education in public schools as  

exemplified (i) in the Premier’s state-  

ment in 1965 of the need to remove  

education from the control of the Public  

Service Board, and (ii) in the diversion  

of public funds to non-government  

schools as vote-catching measure.  

(b) The partisan nature of the Pub-  

lic Service Board as an authority, in  

attempting to put the brake on educa-  

tional expenditure and, in effect acting  

in unison with the State and Federal  

Governments.”  

VARIOUS MEDIA  

Despite the short notice of the elec-  

tions, the Federation organised  

$50,000 campaign which took four main  

forms booklet entitled The Criti-  

cal Years, plus television, radio and  

newspaper advertisements.  

The booklet, The Critical Years, was  

widely distributed, 125,000 copies in  

all being sent out over the State. Visu-  

ally impressive, the booklet presented  

the concern of kindergarten teacher,  

primary principal and secondary  

teacher about the problems and needs  

in their particular spheres of education.  

It listed various facts, such as:  

■ In 1970 one in every eight infants’  

classes was over 38.  

■ In 1970 one in every five primary  

classes was over 38.  

■ The resignation rate of teachers has  

doubled in the last ten years.  

and concluded by saying “We do not  

consider we have right to ask you to  

vote for any particular political party  

we are not political party BUT  

we ask you to consider how you can  

best help education in New South  

Wales”. Remember “The Critical  

Years start on February 13th, 1971.”  

EXPENDITURE EXAMINED  

In association with The Critical Years  

which was intended for wide distribu-  

tion, booklet of statistical data entitled  

The Myth of the $460 million an  

Analysis of State Government Expendi-  

ture on Education was prepared for  

limited distribution by the Federation  

Research Department. Among signifi-  

cant facts brought to light were:  

■ While education expenditure has al-  

most doubled in terms of dollars since  

1964/65, it has remained virtually  

stationary in relation to overall Govern-  

ment spending (around 35%).  

■ If the rate of spending on primary,  

secondary, technical and teacher educa-  

tion had been maintained at the 1964/65  

level, an additional $35 million would  

have been spent on these four vital areas  

of education over the last six years.  

[Continued back page  

Cite

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Work identifier

http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-727263921

APA citation

N.S.W. Teachers' Federation & New South Wales Public School Teachers' Federation. (1919). Education : journal of the N.S.W. Public School Teachers Federation Retrieved May 17, 2025, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-727263921

MLA citation

N.S.W. Teachers' Federation and New South Wales Public School Teachers' Federation. Education : journal of the N.S.W. Public School Teachers Federation Sydney: The Federation, 1919. Web. 17 May 2025 <http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-727263921>

Harvard/Australian citation

N.S.W. Teachers' Federation & New South Wales Public School Teachers' Federation. 1919, Education : journal of the N.S.W. Public School Teachers Federation The Federation, Sydney viewed 17 May 2025 http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-727263921

Wikipedia citation

{{Citation
  | author1=N.S.W. Teachers' Federation.
  | author2=New South Wales Public School Teachers' Federation.
  | title=Education : journal of the N.S.W. Public School Teachers Federation.
  | year=1919
  | section=volumes.
  | issn=0013-1156
  | issue=Vol. 52 No. 03 (3 Mar 1971)
  | location=Sydney
  | publisher=The Federation
  | url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-727263921
  | id=nla.obj-727263921
  | access-date=17 May 2025
  | via=Trove
}}

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