Steve, after reading all you posts, I feel I must point out that; whilst ‘1984’ was a great novel, I am sure Orwell did not intend for us to adopt it as a lifestyle guide.

For someone with no agenda or political leanings, you appear to be going to an inordinate amount of effort to defend the exposure draft, and the party who released it

Personally I am not sure how this is relevant but my friends would have me committed if I became Christian.

If the bureaucracy in Victoria is anything like in NSW I am not surprised that homeschoolers are worried about the Government putting policies in place that control the parent and make certain things and processes compulsory regardless of how intrusive and stupid they are.

I recently applied for an allowance that my children qualified for as they have been granted Distance Education for special needs (Psychological and medical grounds) and they are enrolled in the Distance Education School . The Centerlink site is here, it is called the Assistance for Isolated children http://www.centrelink.gov.au/internet/internet.nsf/individuals/st_payments.htm

I sent the forms to the Distance Education Office and within a couple of days I received a statement saying that my children did not qualify because they did not live far enough away from a school. At the same time they sent me a form to fill in to apply under the Distance Education on Psychological and medical grounds.

The process involved to fill in the forms they provided means having to go back to the Psychologist and having him fill in a medical report. I wrote back to Centerlink and informed them that my children had already been assessed for Distance Education on psychological and medical grounds and they had been successful so therefore they qualified for this allowance and that I did not think that it was fair or right for them to demand that I have to take my children back to the psychologist for this and pay for the psychologist to do another report, when the children are already on Distance Education!

It already took the Department of Education 5 months to process my children’s Distance Education forms as it had to undergo special consideration and scrutiny, whilst my children sat and waited. So many bureaucrats have read my families business and have had internal access to my families life. NOW Centerlink wants me to also send them our life so that they can also see and judge.

I said not on your life, my family is sick of the abuse of our privacy.

HI Di I think you've got lost, you are definately in the wrong place

Steve,
Yes, the discussion paper was released last February asking for input. But there was no mention of home education in the discussion paper. Yes the white paper was released in September but its only reference to home education was one sentence. Not much to go on. The exposure draft is the only concrete evidence we have had of what is planned. Sure home educators expressed concerns before and sought further info but were told to wait for the draft.

On the point of the ‘long summer break’ (which you dismissed by saying you had to return to work on News Year’s Day, why shouldn’t we?) The point is that even if people happened to notice the release of an exposure draft of the Education Act in the midst of Christmas preparations, many go on holidays at this time of year and politicians are uncontactable for much of the exposure period – their offices close. It seems a funny time to release the exposure draft on an Education Act – during the school holidays. Many school parents will return from holidays to find the exposure period over. Education is an important issue to the whole community. Surely a proper public review period is warranted to allow all parents (not just home educating ones) to think about the implications and contact their parliamentarians if necessary.

An accident of timing you think? I don't

Steve, there was no prior warning before the white paper, that home education was under consideration to be included in the rewrite of the Education Act.

It is difficult to comprehend how you can dismiss the lack of exposure for the exposure draft of the Bill so easily. Education is of great importance to all. To release the exposure draft during the school holidays, shows a high level of contempt for the opinions of the electorate by the Bracks’ Government.

You seem to think that it is acceptable for the Government to insist upon adherence to unwritten rules. It is very poor legislative practice to insist on compliance with undisclosed regulations. It is an abrogation of parliamentary responsibility and bad government to confer power on a Statutory Authority which is not properly circumscribed.