Is everyone sitting in Federal Parliament really this out of touch?

"Federal Education Minister Jason Clare said the country needed more young people to understand how democracy worked.

"This is why I've boosted funding for school students to get out of the classroom and visit Parliament House and the War Memorial. To understand what generations of Australians have fought and died for," he said."

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-02-18/civic-education-curriculum-assessment-students/104946138

A trip to Canberra, subsidised or not, won't be very informative about anything except big beautiful buildings and confusing streets.

Civics is a huge topic, much bigger than the War Memorial and Federal Parliament buildings in Canberra.

IMO better would be: Some decent classroom lessons, mock parliaments and analysis of relevant news reports on issues governments are currently concerned about. In later years, talk about voting, lobbying and how legislation is developed - consultation, green papers, white papers, cabinet submissions, parliament. The role of govt and opposition. The three arms - executive, legislative and judicial branches. Constitutions and Acts of Parliament, regulations etc etc.

Maybe followed by a visit to a local council meeting (or state parliament if it's close by), the local cop shop, a local magistrates court. This could be supplemented by q&a visits from parliamentarians of different parties, a judge/magistrate or two, a lawyer or two, a policeman or two, a public servant or three, an electoral office person, and some time watching federal parliament on tele.

All of the above might be OTT, but some of it would be quite useful and informative IMO. And who knows - we might get some good politicians or public servants out of it :)

#Auspol #ALP #JasonClare #Australia #Education #Civics

RT @ScottishGraves
Day 125 of a year of #RandomScottishGravestones 🪦

"Death is the end of all"

I almost missed this not-at-all cheery inscription on a badly worn and toppled stone in Libberton & Quothquan Kirkyard, South Lanarkshire.

A few more winters and these words will be gone forever...

“There is a battle going on between two worldviews, but the divisions aren’t geographical. They’re in people’s heads.”

I talked to Hannah Rosin about the war in Ukraine, Russian propaganda and more, for Radio Atlantic. Listen here: https://www.theatlantic.com/podcasts/archive/2024/05/russias-psychological-warfare-against-ukraine/678459/?utm_campaign=the-atlantic&utm_content=true-anthem&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter

Russia's tactics are terrorist tactics, by any legal or moral definition. I wrote this in July, 2022, but after the deliberate targeting of a shopping center and a book warehouse in Kharkiv, it needs to be repeated.

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/07/russia-war-crimes-terrorism-definition/670500/

Remember: The real freeloaders in this country are the rich, not the poor.

The richest 1% evade $163 billion in taxes every year.

The United States literally has a yacht tax deduction.

Hello?

"...the city of Paris has made enormous investments in public transit, built hundreds of miles of bike paths, and closed many streets to cars. Car trips within the city dropped by almost sixty per cent between 2001 and 2018, car crashes dropped by thirty per cent, and pollution has improved. The city is quieter and calmer; test scores go up as the air around schools cleans up."

#TheWarOnCars #Paris #climatechange

https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/to-save-the-planet-should-we-really-be-moving-slower