South Australian Budget Foleys

The cockroaches are crawling out of the state governments new budget and some of the cuts look pretty short sighted. Chopper Foley, the state treasurer is ekeing out the money for some of the large trophy projects by chopping at worthwhile smaller programmes.

Phasing out a multimillion dollar school fitness initiative for schools when one of the major health issues is childhood obesity. In return a miniscule, exercise for part of the year and get a medal. Next up phasing out of a $30,000 school grant to cover the overhead of many small schools, so that they can run worthwhile programs. Next up very worthwhile music and aquatic programs. These group based programmes that enhance the school experience. At our primary school, this is the only chance that some of the less resourced kids have to experience a musical instrument. The last one is the very excellent school dental service, which was until now, free. For those who do not have access to a dentist, this was an early preventative step, which will now cost you $35 per visit. Thanks Kevin! If the state government cannot fund these kinds of programmes, I think that they have their priorities very skewed.

Based upon my experience with being a member of my kids school governing council, I think that they need to put a bomb under the Department of Education and start from scratch.

Another beauty, is the reduction in the allocation for the very worthwhile plastic bag reduction strategy from over one $100,000 to under $20,000. As Matt and Dave said on ABC Mornings, the devil is in the details. Most of these changes don't show up in policy statements and it is only when an email hits somebodys desk saying no from some anonymous beaureacrat that we find out. Some of the details look very short sighted. Obviously there are many more examples.