Media Analysis on Truancy in Australia - Article Example

Media Analysis on Truancy in Australia Introduction In the last week of August 2008, news of the plan of the Federal Government to hold back parents’ welfare as a means to tackling truancy unfolded, leading to a series of articles in the newspapers debating this controversial plan in the end of August and early September. The purpose of this paper is to critically evaluate the media analysis of the issue of truancy and the impact of this controversial plan to curb truancy. Media Analysis Truancy is an issue of concern in Australia, which the federal government aims to curb by introducing legislation to cut welfare payment to the parents of children, who are regular absentees from school. The essence of the planned legislation is that proof that the children attend school regularly will become mandatory for parents to receive Centrelink-based payments, with the exception of Family Tax Benefit. In the instance of children being absent from school, without adequate reasons, welfare payments would be suspended for thirteen weeks and reinstatement of welfare payments and back-pay dependent on the parents of such children living up to their responsibilities of enrolments in school and regular attendance within this thirteen week period (Robson, 2008). Aap reporting on this planned legislation gives a balanced view of the issue by reflecting the federal government’s perspective on the issue of truancy through the views expressed by the Education Minister Julia Gillard on the subject of truancy and the planned legislation and also the opposition to it. Nearly 20,000 school age children who are regular absentees from school are the targets of this planned legislation. With the laws created through the legislation the federal government will be empowered to withhold the welfare payments of the parents of children, who are not enrolled and regularly attending school. Benefits of education that accrue to children enable them to get the best launching pads to their later life requirements and hence parents must enrol their children in school and ensure regular attendance. An attempt was made by the Minister to tone down the severity of the measure by giving due acknowledgement to the efforts of teachers and principals in reducing truancy and making the use of the planned penalizing of parents, as the last resort (Govt to introduce laws to combat truancy, 2008). Reinforcing this perspective of the planned legislation by the government can be seen in these words of the Family and Community Services Minister, Jenny Macklin, "Of course, the best answer to making sure that you keep your welfare payments is to make sure your children go to school. That's what I expect parents to do” (Jean & Power, 2008). Opposition to this plan of the government is the main thrust in the other media articles. Several themes emerge from the arguments put forward against this plan and the possibility of its success in curbing truancy. The first theme is the strong punitive nature of the plan. The perspective of the Church on this aspect is projected through the views of the out spoken Catholic priest Fr, Bob Maguire, in whose opinion the punitive measure of “cutting off welfare payments”, would result in these needy families becoming dependent on charity, which makes this solution of one social problem lead to another social problem. The perspective of the main opposition is put forward through the criticism of Toby Abott, the Federal Opposition community services spokesman, about the lack of the willingness to cut welfare payments to the unemployed for failing to look for employment, suggesting that they do not realty oppose this plan, but would also like delinquent parents and save on welfare payments (Jean & Power, 2008). The Australian Education Union also lends its opposition to this plan through its extreme punitive nature, which will ultimately have a negative impact on the children, through these words of its president Angelo Gavrielatos “The children will become victims through this punitive arrangement” (Greens will block truancy legislation). There is opposition from social worker as can be seen through the criticism of the plan by the Melbourne social worker Les Twentyman that the plan would have a severe negative impact on families that are already struggling (Govt to introduce laws to combat truancy, 2008). The perspective of the Principals and the teaching community on the proposed plan is available through the opinion, Brian Burgess, who is the president of the Victorian Association of State Secondary Schools. Burgess brings out the prejudicial theme in the plan in that it fails to take a holistic view of the issue of truancy. It can occur in any household, but this plan only targets those families that are on welfare and not the non-welfare families. This plan lays the blame for truancy on families belonging to the low socio-economic group (Burgess, 2008). A more strong criticism of this plan on similar lines comes from the leader of the left leaning Greens party Senator Bob Brown, who asks, ”are they going to stop MPs’ salaries if their kids play hooky?” and then comments “I don’t think so,“. (Plan to cut welfare to truants' parents). The theme that this plan would not provide the desired results is repeated in almost all the articles. There is the perspective of Greens senator Rachel Siewart that there the lack of evidence of regarding the success of the measure being used in the plan (Govt to introduce laws to combat truancy, 2008). Social Service Associations also hold the same view, which can be seen by the articulation of the national president of the Australian Council of Social Service, Lin Hatfield-Dodds “we have yet to see the evidence that this kind of approach will work”, and reinforces the punitive aspect of the plan through “It is extremely punitive. It will have an immediate and severe effect on people’s lives”. Evidence that plan would not work is provided in the article by Behrendt, Larissa, 2008, through the experiences with the indigenous Aboriginal education programmes. These experiences show that punitive measures hardly work, but instead the employing incentives schemes do (Behrendt, 2008). Support for incentive measures in place of punitive measures comes from the New South Wales Association of Children’s Welfare Agencies chief executive, Andrew McCallum, who says “If we’re really serious about making sure that marginalised and disadvantaged people get into the education system, we have to look at incentives … we make sure that education is something that has some point to it and that people can see it’s actually something that’s beneficial”. Furthermore the underlying cause of possible poor nutrition is being ignored by the government through such a plan in the perspective of the Children Welfare Agencies (Robson, 2008). The plan also finds political opposition from the ruling Labour party, which can be seen from the reported public complaint at an ALP caucus meeting by the Labour MP Warren Snowden of the announcement of the plan to the media. There is also resistance to the move by the Opposition (Maiden, 2008). Strongest opposition comes from the left leaning Greens party that champion the cause of the socially and economically backward and have made their intent clear to oppose this planned legislative measure when it comes up, which may make it difficult for the government, who need their support. A feature that strikes out in all this for and against the planned truancy legislation is that the opinion of groups ranging from politics, to education and on to social workers and agencies finds a place in these media reports, but no where is the opinion of the members of the affected families on welfare given. Conclusion: The media reports cover the government perspective of the planned legislation to curb truancy and the perspectives of several groups that have rallied against it. There are several themes like the punitive nature of the measure, the bias against the socially and economically backward class in the measure, the lack of evidence that the measure will succeed and the evidence in support of incentive programmes to curb truancy as learnt from the Aboriginal educational programme that are found in the opposition to the planned legislation. There is the likelihood that the planned legislation may not go through given the political opposition to it. A feature that strikes out is the lack of any perspective of the actual families that are going to be impacted by it. Literary References Behrendt, L. (2008). Rethinking indigenous policy. The Age. Retrieved September 23, from, theage.com.au Web Site: http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/rethinking-indigenous-policy-20080824-41ce.html Burgess, B. (2008). The parent trap in plan to cut welfare payments over truancy. Herald Sun. Retrieved September 23, from, herald sun com. au. Web Site: http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,24247279-5000117,00.html Govt to introduce laws to combat truancy. 2008. aap. Retrieved September 23, from, Web Site: http://au.news.yahoo.com/a/-/mp/4961197/govt-introduce-laws-combat-truancy Greens will block truancy legislation. The Age. Retrieved September 23, from, theage.com.au Web Site: http://news.theage.com.au/national/greens-will-block-truancy-legislation-20080827-43ie.html Jean, P. & Power, E. (2008). CHILDREN will go hungry if family welfare payments are cut off because they don't attend school, the Rudd Government has been warned. Herald Sun. Retrieved September 23, from, herald sun com. au. Web Site: http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,24241035-661,00.html Maiden, S. (2008). Truancy to be monitored in welfare move. The Australian. Retrieved September 23, from Web Site: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24253137-13881,00.html Plan to cut welfare to truants' parents. Sunshine Coast Daily Online. Retrieved September 23, from, the daily.com.au. Web Site: http://www.thedaily.com.au/news/2008/aug/25/plan-cut-welfare-truants-parents/ Robson, P. (2008). ALP truancy policy ignores reality. Australian News, Green Left Weekly, issue no.766. Retrieved September 23, from, GreenLeft Online Web Site: http://www.greenleft.org.au/2008/766/39523 Read More