• George Williams

17 November 2009The NSW ban on the publication of school 'league tables' criminalises speech of a kind that the constitution protects, writes George Williams in the Sydney Morning Herald

FIRST WE HAD the Sydney Morning Herald brazenly breaking the law last week by publishing a comparison of the test results of three schools, and next we were told there was a real possibility that the ban on publishing such material breached the constitution by restricting freedom of speech about politics and government. This, of course, means the Herald may not have broken the law at all. And the availability of such information on a federal government website highlights the ludicrousness of the ban.

Section 18A of the NSW Education Act makes it a crime to publish ''in a newspaper or other document that is publicly available'' in NSW ''any ranking or other comparison of particular schools according to school results, except with the permission of the principals of the schools involved''. The section likewise bans publications that ''identify a school as being in a percentile of less than 90 per cent in relation to school results, except with the permission of the principal of the school''. Individuals who breach the provision face a fine of $5500; corporations such as the owner of the Herald face $55,000 for each infringement...

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George Williams is the Anthony Mason Professor of Law at the University of NSW

Photo: Andrew Jeffrey