THE HON. JOHN DAWKINS
MINISTER FOR EDUCATION

Mr Dawkins, thanks for your time.

It’s a pleasure.

You’re the Minister for Education, aren’t you?

Yes, I am.

How long have you been Minister for Education?

I’ve been the minister for about eighteen months or two years.

How did it happen? Do you remember how it first happened?

I started off just being a spokesman, having a few views on education—things like TAFEs and the primary schools, the best way to buy chalk, small things like that.

What is the best way to buy chalk?

You get it in sticks, I suppose you would call them, about four inches long.

How many would you buy at a time?

If you know where to go, I’ve seen people buying boxes of twenty and thirty at a time.

Could you go out of here now, say, and buy some chalk?

Yes, no trouble.

And what have you done as Minister for Education?

I’ve introduced a very full range of reforms right across the entire spectrum of the Australian education system and the curric…cccricc…

The curriculum?

Yes, the curricoleum.

The curriculum.

The what?

The curriculum.

Yes, that too.

What sort of reform?

What I was instructed to do by the Prime Minister and the Treasurer.

Which was what?

Get rid of the poor. I’ve introduced the tertiary education tax.

What is that?

It’s a way of getting university students to pay for the costs involved in university education,

Aren’t the universities already paid for?

Yes they are.

Aren’t they funded out of taxation?

Yes, of course they are.

Haven’t we already paid for them?

Yes we have.

So you are asking people to pay twice?

Yes.

Will they agree to it?

They won’t get into a university if they don’t.

Where are you going to get the money from?

The plan is to get it out of them when they’ve finished their economics degrees.

So, in effect, you’re blackmailing them.

Yes.

Who pays their fees in the first place?

They do.

Where do they get the money from?

Probably their parents—I don’t know.

Who pays for their accommodation and living expenses and transport and books and so on?

Probably their parents.

And who are you getting into the university system?

At the moment we’re getting a lot of people with fairly rich parents.

Is this a good idea?

I think so. They’re able to go through university with the same people they went to school with and it helps with car-pooling. There’s a continuity about it.

Isn’t it Labor Party policy to provide free education?

Used to be.

It used to be your policy?

No, we used to be the Labor Party.

If we could turn now to research, which is the other major function of the university system…

That won’t change.

How will it be done?

It will be done as it is now.

Where will it be done?

It’s a vital function and will continue to be done as it is now, in areas designated for research.

Where?

Oh, Japan, Taiwan, Sweden. They do a lot of it in Europe, America, Spain, Poland, Brazil and Wales.

Do you get out much?

Not any more, no. I can’t. It’s too difficult. I’ve got to put the beard on, the wig, change my suit, jack up the police escort. It’s just too hard.

So, what do you do?

I stay at home a lot, watch a bit of television.

Do you read?

Read? No, I don’t. Wish I could.