Anna Bligh
I love being a mother. Watching my boys grow into young men has been the great joy of my life.
Like every parent, I’ve had my share of wondering if I’ve done my best, given them what they need and prepared them for the world.
Being in the busy world of politics has given me cause to ask myself more than once if I was doing the right thing by them.
What’s made me answer yes to that question has been knowing that through my job I am working to make Queensland a better place for them to live, and a better place for their children to grow up.
And I have always believed that education is the key.
In education lies a lifetime of opportunity for our kids and our State. It delivers social mobility, employment, higher wages, and increased productivity. Education also brings the joy of reading, the thrill of learning new ideas and can bring our kids real happiness – providing them with the chance to dream big about their future and make it happen.
In Queensland we are in a very unique situation. We are on the cusp of a second mining boom. This is going to result in literally billions of dollars in royalties for Queenslanders.
The wealth in the ground in Queensland belongs to all Queenslanders, which is why I’ve announced an idea to put 50% of our gas royalties into an Education Trust Fund for Queensland babies born from July next year.
Over the next decade alone, more than $1.8 billion in LNG royalties will be put into the Trust.
Right now we are asking Queenslanders to share their ideas with us about how they think this money is best spent towards educating their children.
We are asking for community feedback on two options.
The first proposal would see the government establish individual trust accounts for every newborn, from July 2012 onwards, with an initial deposit of $500 at birth and a further contribution of around $3200 at Prep.
These individual trust accounts could only be accessed when a child turns 18 to fund post-school education or training – by which time they could be worth almost $10,000 each.
This would give tomorrow’s Queenslanders a massive head start for their future training and education – reducing HECS debts, paying TAFE fees and funding equipment and tools for apprenticeships.
The second proposal would see the Queensland Education Trust set aside funds into one pool, to support targeted education and training initiatives not available anywhere else in Australia. This would give our kids a big educational advantage and could pay for things like TAFE and university scholarships for rural and regional students, international student exchange programs and cutting edge programs in maths, science and technology or languages.
This has never been done in Australia before. It’s what sharing the benefits of the mining boom really means.
If we want our children to do well in the very different world of 2030 or 2050 we have to start making the changes now.
We have had a strong education story in Queensland over the last 10 years with new kindies, our prep year and school-based apprenticeships.
And with this plan for a Queensland Education Trust for every child I want to take our education reform agenda to the next level.
If you live in Queensland you know we have come a very long way in recent years. You also know we have a very bright future.
I urge you to use this opportunity to give us your ideas about how you would like to see this Education Trust Fund benefit your children.
We have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to make the enduring legacy of Queensland’s next boom a stronger, fairer, smarter state where we are better educated and more skilled than ever before – for our children and for theirs – so please tell me what you think.
Anna Bligh is the Premier of Queensland. She was the first elected female Premier in Australia.
If you are a Queenslander and would like to provide feedback on this proposal during the consultation period, go here.
Here is a video:
Comments
58 Comments so far
I dont understand – Why do the royalties only belong to Queensland, why do they not go to fund every child’s education in Australia?
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They’re state based resources. The way it works at the moments states get royalties from mining and feds take further from that, but states get most of it I believe…
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I find it renascent that yet again we Aussies feel the need to criticise those in the limelight whether it be politics or any other media outlets when we can’t see the forest for the trees.
Anna Bligh may well be positioning herself for re-election, but last time I checked that’s what politicians do when election time comes around.
I do so admire her and as I read the comments below it appears that people from other states do as well; because they well know what it is like to have very different leaders indeed.
Less than 12 months ago Ms Bligh lead her state through one of its worst disasters in 25 odd years and did so with vigour, integrity and courage in the face of adversity and was applauded by most for her skills and qualities and now it’s ‘all over’ for the majority (obviously not those that are still living with the aftermath) it seems easily forgotten.
Nobody is perfect or infallible and I think that we forget that when we look to our leaders, they are human just like us. I find it refreshing to see a leader like her in a position of authority and the ability to make change.
Back to the topic, if I lived in QLD I would be voting for Option 2. I’d love to be given the opportunity to vote for something that can make a difference in children’s educational lives.
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I wish Anna Bligh was our Premier…we’ve gone from bad to worse here in Victoria. When will those in power get serious about putting the neccesary resources into the areas of health and education?? Drives me nuts when I have to listen to them pussy foot around the ‘real issues’ with their PC bulls#*t and not make the hard decisions…Go Anna, we need more (women) politicians like you! You go girl!
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The money should be spent on full time teacher aides in all prep classrooms. It is a disgrace that this isn’t already happening.
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So true. No wonder that after only 4 years of prep, most prep classes are not play based. They are all about sight words, writing activities, reading big books, even homework and home reading. Too much, too soon. It’s being pushed by principals who have only 1 thing on their mind – NAPLAN. So sad.
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I agree with the second option. Let’s benefit all kids not just those lucky enough to be born after June (my second due in May). As for the coal seam gas industry, I think it is going to happen whether we like it or not, let’s just make it as safe as possible for the environment and people. After Anna’s performance in the floods, she has my vote
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I agree with the second option. Let’s benefit all kids not just those lucky enough to be born after June (my second due in May). As for the coal seam gas industry, I think it is going to happen whether we like it or not, let’s just make it as sage as possiblefor the environment and people. After Anna’s performance in the floods, she has my vote
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I just don’t know. I’m rather conflicted. The environmental aspects worry me greatly. I honestly only know what I have read here but that scares me. And makes me wonder if it should be going ahead at all. That aside I understand that the trust seems like a good idea but in my opinion I would prefer the money going to schools and community centres to focus on mental health and coping skills for kids and adults. Not to mention beds in hospitals for those who are seriously Ill and need longer term care. We need more social workers, psychologist, counsellors and child protection agents. We need them in schools and in the community with MORE Medicare subsidizing. Ten sessions a year just doesn’t cut it! In my book mental health needs serious attention first!
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great idea, i wish it was all of australia.
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Got my vote. Kids are the future. So is education.
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Why is it that when a politician tries to say something positive about one thing, so many people insist on countering it with another issue?
This is not a post or a policy idea bout Coal Seam Gas.
It’s about education and in idea for the future education prospects of kids.
Can we stay on topic?
I love this idea and wish we could occasionally reward politicians for the good things they do and the good ideas they have instead of always deflecting to something negative.
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It’s because politicians never say anything or make any announcement without a strategy behind it. They count on us to have a short memory and forgive all of the mistakes with one great idea… the problem is, if your heart softens because you love this one special idea, and you vote them back in, the rest of the state will continue to be mismanaged. If we are serious about our kids and their future, then we need to get serious about who is running our state, and our country and never discount anything that they say yesterday, today and tomorrow and always remember to hold them accountable for what actually gets rolled out and how effective their policies are. Maybe it all sounds hard and not very “sexy” but there’s no other way. I get so passionate about this because I agree wtih you – good ideas should be rewarded, and kids are our future – but reward the right ideas and reward them when they become more than empty promises.
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The fact is that the current Queensland Government, fronted by Anna Bligh, propose to use the royalties from Coal Seam Gas to fund this Queensland Education Trust. Many people are rightly concerned about coal seam gas and the future implications on the environment and the health of our population into the future, and this is a means to tug at the heartstrings of the voters coming into an election. Who wouldn’t want the promise of money for education in years to come, but what about education now. What about a state who’s public health system is in utter disarray. What about wonderfully new hospital buildings that are opened with great heraldry, but are unable to be used due to lack of funds – like the new wing at the Townsville General which was officially opened in July, but is not operational due to budget cuts. It was meant to house a paediatric ICU, among others. I think it is a bit rude to offer something special to children not yet born, when the children we have now are missing out in more ways than one…
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Lets look at this picture.
Anna Bligh wants to be re-elected. Her government has squandered millions of dollars of mining money in Labor’s term in government.
Coal Seam Gas has been around for 20 years and they have done nothing useful with the royalties in that time. Why would they now?
The money will go back into paying the debt Queensland is in now even after all this CSG money has been the only thing keeping it afloat the last few years.
I am happy to see a education trust fund slide if it means CSG is outlawed and unable to pay for the fund.
Wake up everyone! Does anyone get that we will poison our Great Artesian Basin Water, poison our children and poison productive land in this grab for cash?
Where will we be then Anna? And I can guarantee that Anna will be out of office and enjoying retirement once it becomes apparent that we have sold out and she has done a deal with the devil to secure this fund.
It makes me sick these deals to make CSG more palatable to the unsuspecting and uneducated.
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Mining issues aside, what happens to the money for kids that chose not to further their education? They miss out, I think the money is better spent through out their entire education not just at the end.
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learning or earning, they have to do one or the other
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If anyone is interested in the ins and outs of coal seam gas, check out http://www.abc.net.au/news/specials/coal-seam-gas-by-the-numbers/. Anna Bligh’s Government’s proposal is an attempt to placate community concerns about CSG….. Anna is a great one for pulling a rabbit out of a hat before an election and this proposed initiative is no different. It is a great idea on the face of it, but it does nothing to improve education in the here and now, and the idea that we in Queensland are on the cusp of a second mining boom – well the state has been ‘booming’ on the tails of mining for the last twenty years but the government has squandered those royalties and left the state almost broke. Anna is a decent presenter and motivator, not a fantastic Premier! By the way, rabbits are banned in Queensland…….
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Anna, I am one of your biggest fans, but what are you thinking??! Coal seam gas?? Really??? You think that’s coal seam gas is a good idea for qld and for our children’s futures? Sigh. I know it’s a lot of money Anna, but is it really worth educating our children whilst poisoning and destroying their water and land at the same time? Sorry but that will lose my vote.
Please people, do your research on coal seam gas! Carcinogens in our water supplies and increased seismic activity – fun times. Securing qld’s future…pfft! What a joke.
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Yep. I’ll vote for anyone who helps me get a better life for my kids. It’s that simple.
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It depends on what you classify as a better life for your kids though – is it quick band-aid fixes that sound great and are aimed at winning votes, or is it a strong economic forecast, where kids can grow up to afford to live well in their home state? Anna Bligh has squandered our economy and despite the fact that I am about to welcome my first child into the world, I don’t believe a word of this and I don’t want him, or her, to be born into a state governened by Anna Bligh!
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Is it bad to say that I vote not so much on policies but on the general feeling I have about a politician’s character? Well it’s true.
And I would vote for Anna Bligh over Campbell Newman any day of the week.
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It’s not a personality contest though. This point of view is the exact reason that the government on a federal level is so screwed
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I don’t understand anyone who would say this is a bad idea. Why are we so cynical about politicians? We say we want them to stop spinning but then they come up with something out of the box and it’s nit-picked to death?
Come on. We only get the politicians we deserve. Let’s encourage some ingenuity like this.
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Oh my goodness. As a mother, I completely agree that education is paramount in lives of our children. However, the funds from this will be coming from Coal Seam Gas mining.
While it all sounds so lovey dovey coming from Ms Bligh, this is coming from a politician who is on the brink of being smashed in the polls.
Based on the comments here, her last ditch efforts may work.
Wake up people!
CSG? No thanks.
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Sounds like she’s buying re-election
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dear ms bligh. if our kids’ education needs a boost, then by all means put the money in. but find it somewhere else. you cannot bribe me with the blood money of CSG mining that poisons our water, decimates our land, and destroys the livelihoods of generations-old, loyal, queensland agricultural families, forcing their kids off the land and away from the some of the most important ‘learning’ they will do in their lives. thanks, but no thanks.
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Education is everything. It’s the key to the future. To hand that to a child is the most meaningful gift you could give. Well done Ms Bligh.
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I was recently in brisbane for work and I asked my taxi driver who was going to win the next election and he said “labour are out for sure” and I probed him about it a bit more and he told me that Anna Bligh was great but that there was only so much you can do when you have lousy ministers.
He seemed to think people had just had a gutful of labour after 20 years. I have no idea whether he is right or not beucase I don’t know much about the state of politics up there but I know that whenever Anna Bligh comes on TV or radio, I stop what I’m doing and listen. Unlike julia gillard who I just can’t seem to ‘hear’ no matter how hard I try.
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Anna,
If you do get voted out next year from your current gig, please will you go to Canberra so the rest of us can have the chance to vote for you? So few politicians stick their heads up to have big ideas like this. It’s all just so negative and slagging each other off. We need you on the federal stage.
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personally, i would like to see the government put the money toward special needs eductation.
yes i know this does not include “everyone”…but when you have seen kids been turned away from special needs kindys run by state schools because the kindy funding has been reduced and teachers relocated, its not good enough. and the kids who stay can only access 4-5 hours of help per week.
then these kids get to school and get little to no help. the hurdles the parents have to jump through, the daily battles to get their kids into a school that is right for them, the fight for teacher aides…there are parents that are paying for teacher aides themselves because the government schools can not fund it.
and for those children who do not have special needs, how about using the money towards updating facilities at schools? or putting new schools in areas to cope with the growing population?
how about spending the money on infrastructure rather than trying to buy votes
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Good point Deb H
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Great idea Anna but why do governments only become visionary when they’re staring down the barrel of defeat?
Too little too late.
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It sounds to me like almost a superranuation scheme but for newborns. Why has nobody thought of that before?
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Agree. I think it’s the smartest idea the labor govt has ever had.
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But would it change your vote for next year?
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you know, I think it would. I am all about vision. There’s not enough of it in politics – hell, is there any? All Tony Abbott does is say no and Julia Gillard just seems like a robot.
I’ve always loved Anna and I’ve just been looking for a reason to vote for her after a long period of disillusionment.
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NOW you’re talking! I know so many people who spend their baby bonus or allowance on TVs or expensive prams. How does that help your child really in the long run?
Something like this plan for forced savings for your child – bankrolled by the government could change lives.
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I think kids should have a trust fund so they can pay for schoolies!
No, I’m kidding.
Brilliant idea.
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I would have loved $10,000 to spend on schoolies. Or a Contiki tour after school.
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I’m off to leave my ideas on the feedback site! Thanks so much for publishing this Mamamia, I tend to switch off from politicians but I really enjoyed reading this.
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My feedback- give the money to the schools to provide better teaching and teaching aids. 18 is too late. We have to get our young kids interested in learning and actually wanting to get a tertiary education
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I agree! I think it is all good and well to put money towards higher education, but how about helping children get to that stage? How about putting some of that money towards helping less privilidged students from low socio-ecomomic areas & under-resourced schools, or children with special needs, to reach their full potential so that higher education is actually an option, & the social mobility & higher wages that Anna talks about are not just a dream but a reality.
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What a brilliant idea. I wish I could vote for you from WA.
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Ditto from NSW!
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I think this is a magnificent idea. Imagine the difference this could make to school leavers not to mention the workplace.
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Agreed. Luff Anna!
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Wouldn’t it be nice ifpeople in NSW thought like this
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Yes. it makes me want to go and live in Brisbane
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Meet you there. It’s got to be better than the NSW government.
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We could start by not using the word ‘littlest’.
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I think it is really good that the QLD premier is going to really do something valuable with the mining money. This would be something that would help generations of people a long time after everything has been dug up out of the ground.
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Why wait until kids are to start funding their education properly. Just provide better education from day one. There must be enough research to show what this looks like and how it is done. A poor education experience won’t be solved at 18. As Maria sang ” let’s start a the very beginning, it’s a very good place to start…….’
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I love the idea of putting money aside for education. Education is the key. Something doesn’t feel right with the idea of individual scholarships for people, I think one way or another this could be exploited.
I live in Queensland in a small regional community. My children dont have the same oppurtunities as those in big cities. Only 2 of my 3 girls have started school and are many years of university, but we have already started putting money aside for them to go to university (or further training) as it would be a great expense to us. With no local TAFE, we would also have to pay travel, accomadation etc for them to even do a TAFE course.
Due to my own personal circumstances, I believe the best way the money could be spent is option 2 the education pool and using the money for new initatives, scholarships etc.
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Madam premier, I want to say this to you… I believe that you should move to federal government and run for prime minister. Actually. And I believe Im not the only one who feels this way. You are a smart, intelligent, compassionate, straight forward. Woman, and I would be proud to have you. as the leader of our country.
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I think it’s a brilliant idea but it’s a shame it’s only going to be for kids born from July 2012. It’s going to result in parents pushing back caesarean dates again just for the money like we saw when the baby bonus payments went up. Can’t really blame parents for doing this, I’m sitting here wishing my youngest bub born in September this year would get it and feeling jealous that my sister who has a baby due in July will be getting that and the partners paid maternity leave. Our kids will be one year apart in school yet so far apart when it comes to being able to afford further education.
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Colin Barnett, what do you think of a similar plan for us here in the West, also about to have another mining boom? WA kids lag behind the rest of Australia in terms of their education, as shown on our NAPLAN results. I would love to see some of the wealth that is generated by mining go towards improvements in our education system. The last mining boom we had here, the wealth did not trickle through to all areas of society, in fact it made life harder for many, with huge increases in property values causing lack of affordable housing, among other things.
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Anna, what a noble endeavour!
Having been schooled in regional Queensland in the 90s I can say I was disappointed in my education and the one size fits all model. As for your two proposals, the second one sounds like the better option.
Not every child is suited to tertiary education and possibly wouldn’t use their ‘trust.’ I would like to see uni and TAFE fees reduced but also higher expectations of entrants. It is pretty pathetic when you only need an OP of 19 to become a teacher. How are these teachers supposed to teach our children basic spelling and maths when they struggle with it themselves?
I would also like to see more programs for gifted and talented students throughout the state, including regional areas, as well as easier ways to fast track these students through ‘the system.’ There is nothing worse than sitting in class relearning material because your classmates don’t learn as fast as you.
Extra programs and facilities for special needs students would take the burden off general teachers as well. One teacher I know had three high needs students in her class last year. It leaves little time for teachers to teach when all their attention is taken up by three students.
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