Jenny Macklin (Jagajaga, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

We have had the most extraordinary outbursts from the Minister for Education, Science and Training over the last few days. Just last Thursday night, the minister for education circulated a speech calling for a common national curriculum. She justified this with the following quite incredible remark. She said:

Some of the themes emerging in school curriculum are straight from Chairman Mao.

She went on to say:

We are talking serious ideology here.

It is not the teachers that she is hopping into this time—although we know those on that side of the parliament like to blame the teachers for most things. On this occasion, the minister for education is blaming the state boards of education.

Today in question time the Leader of the Opposition asked the minister for education which Maoist was actually present on the New South Wales Board of Education. The Leader of the Opposition asked whether it was the president, Professor Gordon Stanley; whether it was any of the parents from the state schools or the Catholic schools; whether it was Dr Brian Croke, Executive Director of the Catholic Education Commission of New South Wales; whether it was Mr Phillip Heath, Headmaster of St Andrew’s Cathedral School; or whether it was Brother Kelvin Canavan, Director of the Catholic Education Office. The Leader of the Opposition asked which of these people this minister for education in the Howard government would identify as a Maoist. Of course, she could not do any such thing.

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