MELBOURNE (Boscutti Report) — Victorian Opposition Leader Matthew Guy has announced that if elected, he would restore the poetry police in schools program as part of a plan to combat free form poems.
‘Expressive and modern, open forms of poetry are a scourge among students,’ he said.
The initiative would cost $50 million over four years and involve state, Catholic and independent schools.
One of its most contentious elements is a two-year pilot of dedicated, on-duty armed poetry police officers who will be stationed at 10 metropolitan and regional schools in areas that have ‘specific youth poetry needs or at-risk poetry challenges’.
A spokesman said the Liberal Party of Victoria is a strong advocate of free speech it agrees with.