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1. Mr Elder is unique among his colleagues in State and Territory-based Catholic Education Offices and the NCEC in adopting a vigorous and outspoken attitude towards Commonwealth school funding, especially in the run-up to implementing the Government's response to the Gonski Review.
   In this his strategy, vision and contribution to the discourse of education across the nation and all educational sectors differs markedly from that of his predecessor, Dr Susan Pascoe.
   Moreover Mr Elder came to this position from a background as an advisor to the Victorian Coalition Government and, as such, is closely associated in the public mind with a position and attitude that no other Executive Director of Catholic Education is 'coloured' by.
   The 'natural' constituents of the Coalition Parties being the supporters of independent schools, the Catholic Church has hitherto carefully steered a path of strict policy neutrality in its dealings with parties on both sides in federal and state-based negotiations on behalf of Catholic schools.
   In this regard Mr Elder has been forthright in his public criticisms of the Commonwealth Government in relation to the Gonski Review, despite the fact that Canberra's intention is put Gonski on the back burner, given the pressures created by a climate of fiscal austerity that his natural allies in the Coalition Parties have inexorably driven.
   These foreseeable challenges clearly require a rethink of his policy.

   Posted By: Dr Michael Furtado

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