LARA VELLA, TODAY: Now we’re learning more this morning about the Government’s plan
to tackle the education crisis in our schools. The Government, planning to take the school
curriculum back to basics stripping out fringe subjects which have taken focus away from
core learning. To discuss this and plenty more, I'm joined by Dan Anstey from Sea FM
on the Gold Coast and Senator Malarndirri McCarthy. A very good morning to you both
and Happy Monday. Dan, good morning, let's first start with you. Of course, this comes
off the back of that pretty startling report that showed that Australian students are falling
behind with the rest of the world when it comes to those basic subjects. Do you think
this is the answer, to strip away those “non-essential”, so-called “non-essential” subjects?
DAN ANSTEY, SEA FM: Well yeah that was very concerning wasn’t it? I'm particularly worried
about young boys who don't seem to be particularly conducive to that school environment like
sitting down in a room. I remember being a young boy, obviously only a few years ago,
I’m still very young, and it was very difficult, just to sit in a classroom and try and soak
in academia. They seemed to be more conducive to getting outside and learning through that
kind of environment. I don't know whether stripping away is the answer but maybe re-tooling
the way that we teach kids if you get kids out and about and learning physics through
actual activities as opposed to rote learning could be an option.
VELLA: Okay, so you think it might be a problem itself with the way that we teach our students.
Malarndirri, some of the types of subjects facing the axe, they include dance, road safety
and languages such as Mandarin, Japanese and Italian and the plan is to replace those with
Indigenous language classes do you think this will work?
MALARNDIRRI MCCARTHY, NORTHERN TERRITORY SENATOR: Look I always think that learning First Nations
languages and having that as an option is a good thing for our country. But I'd say
that firstly, with any changes in each of the schools in the curriculum, you need to
make sure you've got the teachers, and you've got the parents involved. And so many schools
are different in the kind of focus that they have. And I just want to make sure that there
is that kind of coordination and consultation amongst the people who actually matter and
those are the students and their families.
VELLA: And do you think that will be better benefited by focusing more on the making that
the curriculum more streamlined by that back to basics focus?
MCCARTHY: Well certainly if there’s a real issue around Maths, English, History, I think
some of them were the social sciences as well. Clearly, we've got a real concern if our figures
are going down, but at the end of the day, you got to make it an environment that people
and students want to learn in. And if they're studying subjects that are of interest of
course, they’ll enjoy it a lot better.
VELLA: Absolutely, and none of us want our teachers as stretched as they already are
in many of our schools. Now also making news today, Labor MP Julian Hill has been making
a few headlines over his proposals for Australia to ditch the monarchy and become a republic,
without a referendum. Seems unlikely. Well the MP for Bruce in Victoria says parliament
on its own could make a vote – could vote rather – to make our Governor General the
head of state, instead of the Queen. What do you think of this Malarndirri?
MCCARTHY: Oh well look I know Julian Hill and he's a wonderful man and a wonderful representative.
I think in this instance I would say that with all that's going on certainly with Prince
Andrew and all the trauma that the Royals are going through you probably find most Australians
would just go – look, you know, it's just not on. But if we're talking about referendum,
Lara, I'd certainly want to see firstly a referendum for a voice, a First Nations voice
to Parliament, if we're going to be talking about anything.
VELLA: Indeed. Dan, as Malarndirri just touched upon, this is a huge issue. Shouldn't this
be decided by a referendum instead of a vote by Parliament?
ANSTEY: Look referendums can get expensive though, I mean we saw that with the plebiscite
on same sex marriage, not long ago. We done numerous polls and every poll came back that
60% of Australians wanted same sex marriage, were in favour of it, so then when we spent
an enormous amount of money doing a plebiscite, we ended up finding that exact result. So
I think you can get it done cheaper and I like that the article mentioned that the Queen
is possibly going to be, if this goes through, the last monarch. That's going to be the case
anyway. She's never going to die. If there is a global Holocaust, it will just be cockroaches,
the Queen and Keith Richards from the Rolling Stones. Mainly because she can’t let her
idiot kids take over. No one wants Charles and Randy Andy, he's in enough trouble as
it is.
VELLA: But that's the reality, I mean one day Charles will be King, do you think, Dan,
that it's time that we became a republic?
ANSTEY: Look, if we don't, skip him, go straight to Will. Look people who like the Royals,
I'm a fan of becoming a republic. I think when you grow up as a nation, you graduate,
you move out from under your parents’ shadow and you become your own nation. I think it's
a great idea. I think we should do away with the Royals and if you love the Royals---
MCCARTHY: It’s time.
ANSTEY: Look, don’t worry, they won't go anywhere. We’ll still get all the gossip.
They'll still be there, we just won’t have to listen to them. And an Australian will
become the head of state, because right now an Australian cannot become a head of state,
you have to be born into it through this, this strange system that, this is a relic
of a time gone by.
VELLA: No doubt Meghan and Harry will always provide us with headlines that we need as
well. It’ll be very interesting to see, to see how public sentiment falls when the
Queen does pass. Now, I want to end on this note---
ANSTEY: She never will.
VELLA: No, she's immortal. This headline: You’re never too old to have some fun. I
love this story because forget schoolies, the new buzzword right now is “moolies”.
That's right, this is the rising popularity of middle aged mums taking themselves away
for their own week of partying. Malarndirri, yes or no? I'm all for this I love it. Mums
deserve to let their hair down.
MCCARTHY: You know what, Lara, I think my son, when he graduated four years ago, I wish
they had this around then. But I have to say it just made me laugh when I heard Moolies,
and I was like, so do they have something already now for dads like is it ‘doolies’,
or ‘foolies’ for fathers? Where has this come from? Good luck to them I reckon,
VELLA: I love it. Dan you said, already, you've got what is it, an eight month bub?
ANSTEY: Yeah we’ve got an eight month old at home and I reckon my wife is ready for
this right now. Malarndirri, I’ll get her to give you a call. You two can cut loose
right now, celebrating. The ‘toolies’, they’ve got two options now: the schoolies
and the moolies.
VELLA: Oh my goodness. I reckon you could cut loose as a doolie anyway.
ANSTEY: Thanks for the laugh mate.
VELLA: Dan and Malarndirri lovely to see you, happy Monday.