Andrew Stoner, the New South Wales Shadow Minister for Education, makes some very important points about students involved in APEC protests.
And he says that the Government's attempts to dissuade students from taking part in APEC protests are too little, too late after the Government had allowed politics to be introduced into the classroom.
He says warning the students not to protest and to stay at school is like shutting the gate after the horse has bolted.
Andrew Stoner said "It's too late for the Iemma Government to beg students to stay away from APEC protests when it's turned a blind eye to the introduction of political messages and stood by as radical protest groups used New South Wales schools as recruiting grounds".
He said "Whether it's on US foreign policy, workplace relations or on indigenous affairs, the Government has shown it doesn't have the will or ability to stamp out divisive politics in the classroom".
Well, Andrew Stoner's 100 per cent correct.
There's the teacher recently who called the Prime Minister a dick.
Andrew Stoner says "If New South Wales Government schools are being used as ideological battlegrounds then it's little wonder some students will be more inclined to participate in protests."
He says, "New South Wales Government schools should teach the philosophy of how to think, not what to think."
And he said it wasn't enough for police to disperse student protesters.
He said "Police need to crack down on student protesters but it's not enough to take down their details and send them back to school ... the Iemma Government needs to stop begging schoolchildren to stay away for their own safety. It needs to send a strong message about discipline ...
"Students found to be protesting should be suspended and any teacher found to have been encouraging students to protest should be sacked."
He says the Iemma Government must reverse its policy of pushing divisive political messages on schoolchildren in New South Wales public schools.
All of that is correct.
All of that would be what the public were wanting.
Where is John Della Bosca?