I’ll be appearing on Australia Talks Back on the evening of Anzac Day, from 6-7pm on Radio National, spruiking my rather controversial proposal to pay Indigenous teens a daily stipend in order to boost the school completion rate.
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Why is this controversial? The experiement with building pools and only allowing kids who have been to school that to swim seems to have worked.
Australia talks back is a good show – although some people may call in and give you serve simply because you’re an economist.
although some people may call in and give you serve simply because you’re an economist.
Surely not.
😉
In the end, I wasn’t accused of being an economist, though I was accused of being childless (“only someone without kids would propose giving them cash!”). Didn’t have a good comeback on that one….
‘Didn’t have a good comeback on that one….’
Practice, practice, practice.
Ahh – people with kids think that they have special knowledge that people without kids couldn’t possibly know, eg “what would you know about (something to do with kids or how difficult they/living/paying the mortgage can be) ?”.
The special knoweldge you cite, well bollocks – but a special insight into human love, yes.
Patrick, I have to demur – having a child may well gain you insight into human love, but it’s not an essential requirement.
More and more perplexing. Though a devoted RN listener I can’t bear that show’s relentlessly PC attitude – I assumed AL was invited just to provide some right-wing balance – yet Sinclair thinks it’s a good show.
Sinclair you say that the swimming pools thing isn’t controversial – but presumably that’s open to all kids who attend school. I don’t think Andrew has really answered, say a single mum living on benefits who sends her kids to school, and they sit next to other kids who are being paid to go to school.
Why not have the scheme for all the kids at that school? Identify a school at which truancy is a problem and think about having the scheme for all kids at the school.
Sacha – the callers had some good points: that these kids start off well behind others so from the beginning school is unpleasant, that malnourished kids don’t learn so well, that the administration of such a scheme would suck up resources, that unless the family has a committment to schooling it won’t work etc
okey-dokey: I didn’t listen to the program.
quick thought: maybe the milk at school scheme of old/similar ones could be considered.
‘Sinclair you say that the swimming pools thing isn’t controversial – but presumably that’s open to all kids who attend school.’
Yes. My understanding is that kids who did not attend that morning cannot use the pool that afternoon.
On the other point, the whole of the ABC is relentlessy PC, but I still think the idea of Australia Calls Back is pretty good.
Mark Bahnisch told me once that the milk at school scheme was stopped in Qld by Kevin Lingard (still the member for Beaudesert in the Qld parliament) when he was a Minister back in the 80s. The story was that Kevin thought it was a bit socialistic/communistic. I don’t know if it’s true.
Sacha,
Thanks for the nauseating memory of school milk. Crates of the stuff were delivered and stacked up in the playground – to warm up nicely by playlunch time. Full fat, unhomognised … every couple of weeks some kid would throw up after drinking the stuff. Being a sensitive child I persuaded my parents to provide flavoured drinking straws – straws which had a bit of chocolate stuck in them so the milk sucked through tasted chocolate (hence my addiction to chocolate today I suppose).
Sinclair – you have that program called Counterpoint (sorry that it’s rubbish – except for the music). Anyway, didn’t I hear you yourself on RN this week … ?
I don’t remember if I ever had the opportunity to sample the school milk experience. I vaguely remember it in my early years, but that might be my brain making things up!
Now I have chocolate/strawberry soy milk on the muslie.
“but that might be my brain making things up!
Now I have chocolate/strawberry soy milk on the muslie”
Could be a connection there Sacha ! soy milk which is all UHT is the work of Satan. I buy proper milk, from local cows, in glass bottles.
Unflavoured soy milk is one of the most disgusting tasting substances around. That’s why I have flavoured soy milk. Who says that only kids can have chocolate milk on their breakfast cereal?
Yes, you did. I was on Counterpoint (talking about the brutal tax burden that high-income earners bear). But, sorry to say, the notion of having a specific show to counter the relentless PC is itself overly PC.
‘Unflavoured soy milk is one of the most disgusting tasting substances around.’
Depends on your tastes. My number two son has a strong milk allergy – so he drinks soy. I once accidently gave him cows milk to drink and he pulled a face saying ‘that’s disgusting’.
As time goes on, I’m finding cows milk harder and harder to take – it’s certainly very sweet.
I had a machine-made cappuccino in the qantas club on saturday morning and I’m sure that the milk in it made me feel unwell.
Russel, do you have an aversion to milk from nonlocal cows in cardboard containers?
Sacha – non-local is one issue (I think we’ve been through that!). Glass is maybe an aesthetic thing: the milk tastes better because it looks better (to me). Then there’s the satisfaction of getting back at the people who changed the name of the Sheffield Shield to the Pura Cup.
Before I knew I couldn’t have cows milk (it’s a little allergy) I used to love it – a work colleague of mums would daily milk his cow in the southern blocks of brisbane and deliver a two-litre container of beautiful creamy milk – mmmmm – the cream would vary from not very much to two inches at the top.