A recently silent reader of this blog has complained at the lack of non-cricket related posts. This is one, but I'm not sure it will be any more welcome. A theme of the early days of the blog was that many posts compared "east" and "west" in one way or the other - from the rising of the sun to its setting. In not too long, my office moves from "central" Sydney to the "west". (In purely physical terms, it's more like "east" to "central", but never mind that...) The road linking the west, Parramatta or Penrith, to the city is the M4, but it stops well short. There is talk about extending it underground to the city and then the airport, and some news reports about this have referred to the "marginal seats" of Marrickville and Balmain. How times have changed, and how much difference a few more Green votes has made!
In other political news, we see how much some things never change. The federal opposition is complaining that only Labor parliamentarians are allowed to be part of events associated with stimulus package school infrastructure funding. When they were in government, not having global downturn on their mind, they had a smaller scheme in place - funding a flagpole for any school that didn't have one. Of course, a condition was that a Coalition MP or Senator attend the dedication ceremony. Politicians are politicians.
3 comments:
There were other more dire conditions in regards to the compulsory flagpole.
I was working at a small independent school at the time and I seem to remember someone conveying that if the flagpole wasn't in place by a certain date then funding would be suspended.
I'm pretty sure that when the flagpole scheme started, it was just that - funding for flagpoles if the school wanted one and didn't have one. The commissioning ceremony became optional after some schools weren't eligible for funding because MPs weren't turning up, but instead they should have a plaque recognising the funding and mention it in the newsletter. The new government hsa conitinued this self-promotion until the flagpole funding died, and now wiht this funding.
But yes, the existence of a flagpole (forcing schools to take advantage of the funding and subsequent self-promotion) was soon made one of the requirements of the basic federal funding for schools, along with exercise programs and mandated reporting methods. That's a much bigger story, IMHO...
Carry on with cricket posts.
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