Shabbos Voting
As a child I recall how at every election frum Yidden had
serious concerns about their voting arrangements. The reason
was that elections in Australia are always held on Shabbos --
and voting is compulsory with nonattendance punishable with a
fine!
Thus, in winter when Shabbos goes out early, they went to the
polling places after Havdoloh and before the 8.00 p.m.
closing time. Summer however, was a problem. Many actually
walked to the polling stations and simply threw unmarked
ballot papers into the box, while others were probably
fined.
These days one can register as a permanent postal voter and
automatically receive the ballot papers for all elections in
the mail -- making life much easier for observant Jews.
Our most recent federal elections were held on Shabbos the
9th of October. Surprisingly (to the polls), the John Howard-
led Liberal Party [liberal in name only -- in actual fact
conservative] and their coalition partners, the rurally based
National Party, were returned for a fourth consecutive term
with an increased majority. As a bonus they received -- for
the first time -- a majority in the upper house, the
Senate.
US President George W. Bush and British PM Tony Blair
immediately called to congratulate Howard and no doubt sighed
with relief. They would have been quite concerned with the
election promise made by the opposition Labor Party leader
Mark Latham to bring home the 1000 Australian troops in Iraq
by the end of the year.
John Howard remains one of America's staunchest allies and
has a tough and uncompromising stand against terrorism. This
has in fact hardened since the bombing of two nightclubs in
neighboring Bali where over 200 people -- nearly half of them
Australian tourists -- were killed 2 years ago. Howard and
his party are also seen as reliable supporters of Israel in
its battle against Palestinian terrorism.
The election campaign was fierce and with both leaders making
almost daily promises about new and expensive spending,
pointing to the massive $20 billion surplus in the treasury
coffers.
This election featured a number of matters of special
interest for Australia's 100,000-soul Jewish community. In
keeping with that klal that `Jews are News', these
were reported prominently in the national media.
The Battle of the Jewish Candidates
First was the matter of the battle for the traditionally
Labor-held seat of Melbourne Ports -- which has the largest
number of Jewish voters in the country, estimated at 15-20
percent of the 95,000 registered voters. This electorate
includes the heavily Jewish and heimishe areas of
Ripponlea, East St. Kilda and Caulfield.
Both the sitting member Michael Danby, who has represented
the Labor Party since 1998 and his main opponent businessman
David Southwick of the Liberals -- grew up in the area, have
a Jewish background and were students at Melbourne's largest
Jewish school the Mount Scopus College. Danby is the son of a
German Holocaust survivor, but Southwick is a seventh
generation Australian with forbears amongst the original
transported convicts from Great Britain.
In the months leading up to the election the weekly
Australian Jewish News had dozens of articles and
letters to the editor from supporters and opponents of both
sides.
Danby has been a fierce defender of Jewish interests and a
tireless supporter of Israel in Parliament. He often battles
the left-wing pro-Arab politicians [usually with large
numbers of Muslims in their electorates] in his own party.
Pundits generally agree that this electorate would have long
ago become Liberal territory had Labor nominated a different
candidate.
Government Funding for Jewish Schools
Both candidates used their influence on their parties to
guarantee to help Jewish schools. Unfortunately some of these
offers looked pretty messy when analyzed by the non-Jewish
media and some serious explaining was required.
Boruch Hashem both the Federal and State governments
in Australia have a policy of funding religious and private
schools, but there are many voices that demand an end to this
practice. Since approximately 25 percent of all Australian
children attend private Catholic schools, it would be
political suicide for any party to even consider this.
Until the year 2000 the method of private-school funding was
via a slightly complicated formula which took into account
each school's income and expenditure. Melbourne's chareidi
Adass Yisroel school, as well as the Chabad schools in
Melbourne and Sydney, qualified as `needy' and received
higher per capita funding that the other Jewish schools --
some of which have outstanding facilities and charge annual
fees of $12-15,000 per child.
In 2000, the government allocated additional hundreds of
millions of dollars for private schools and at the same time
introduced a new funding approach of which the main
beneficiaries were the richer schools.
The new funding formula is calculated by using the most
recent Census information about the area.
Since the heimishe tzibbur lives in an area which has
over the years become middle- and upper-middle-class, our
schools are now no longer categorized as `needy'. However the
main reason for this unjustified upgrade is that the new
formula does not take into account the size of our families.
The government does its calculations using only the average
Australian family size of 1.6 children and they left no
allowance for the fact that frum Jews have an average of
about six children per family.
Had this been included in the equation, there is no doubt
that the parents of our children would not have been scored
as being better off than the countries wealthiest landowners
and the captains of industry -- whose children attend
Australia's most exclusive and expensive schools.
According to the new ratings, the Adass Yisroel school with
its meager facilities and where the children have their
lunchtime and playtime in shifts, is now officially wealthier
that many of Australia's elite schools. These include the
neighboring Caulfield Grammar school which sits on prime real
estate valued at around $200 million dollars, and the
exclusive Geelong Grammar school, where Queen Elizabeth sent
her heir, Prince Charles, to study for a number of terms!
To our mazel, when introducing the new funding scheme
the government included `funding guarantee' -- meaning that
no school will get any less than it did under the previous
system. Had this not been in place our schools would have
enormous losses. Thus, although we no longer are considered
`needy,' we continue to be funded at the earlier `category
12' level.
So why are we unhappy?
The answer is that while the Adass school indeed was
previously categorized as a level 12 school, this was only
because there were no lower categories. Based on its real
resources and needs, the school would have no doubt qualified
for a higher level of help. Under the old system, this was
not possible. The new system, however, provides some schools
with even more support than the previous maximum, and the
Adass school feels that it should be receiving additional
grants, and not be classed as a rich school.
Unfortunately the legislation does not allow for any appeal.
Thus, even though the education minister and his department
officers -- as well as most politicians -- agree that there
is justice in the claim of Orthodox Jews, nothing has been
done to rectify the situation.
Visits By The Ministers
Prior to the 2001 election, the then-Education Minister Dr.
David Kemp visited the Adass Israel School and agreed that we
have a strong claim. He issued a public statement -- reported
on the front page of the Jewish News -- that an appeals
mechanism will be instituted to help schools like ours. In
the 3 years that followed, his replacement Dr. Brendan Nelson
indeed began the proceedings for this -- but we still await
concrete results.
The Education Minister Dr. Nelson, together with his
advisers, paid a -- now traditional -- pre-election visit to
the Adass school and were given a tour of its facilities. He
was indeed sympathetic to the school's needs and again
promised to help rectify the situation.
Having missed out on the extra funding for the past 4 years,
now that the elections are over, we sincerely hope that our
concerns will not again be placed in the `too hard' basket --
until the next elections . . .
Australia's Support For Israel
Another mater of interest to Jews is the government's
relationship with Israel. Most agree that current coalition
is probably the most supportive ever. While the opposition
may not be as close, they are clearly not anti-Israel, with
many of their representatives having close connections with
Israel's socialist parties.
Family Friendly Policies
Another issue which no doubt was considered by many orthodox
Jews was the present government's strong pro-family policies.
Most families with children qualify for help which can total
$200-300 per week, including generous child-care subsidies,
low cost medicine, free, or almost-free, GP and public
hospital, rent assistance, discounts for water, gas,
electricity and car registration fees and other benefits.
In the past year the government introduced a bonus payment of
$600 per child and in fact it is now giving a second helping
of the same. This will continue as an annual benefit. Can you
imagine what $7000-8000 extra means to a melamed with
6- 7 children?
Also introduced recently is a `baby bonus' of $3000. This
will rise over the coming few years to $5000. Some of our
kollel yungeleit studying in Yerushalayim are now
coming back home just to have their babies here. One such
couple recently had twins.
In conclusion, Australian Jews live under a Malchus shel
Chesed and hope and pray that it continues so -- ad
bi'as haGo'el bimheiro beyomeinu.
