Ms Julie Bishop (Curtin, Liberal Party, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Women's Issues) Share this | Hansard source

I was saying that what we are seeking to do is strengthen the teaching of Australian history in our schools. I was astonished to read in the Australian newspaper—admittedly, it was the Australian, so the Leader of the Opposition will not have read this national newspaper—an article on 6 July headed ‘Beazley against history revival’. It reads:

KIM Beazley has dismissed the push ... to reinstate the teaching of traditional Australian history in schools as an “elite preoccupation”.

I ask the Leader of the Opposition: what is elite about learning about our diggers at Gallipoli? What is elite about learning of the struggles of our early settlers? What is elite about the establishment of a liberal democracy in this country?

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