Julie Owens (Parramatta, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Public education is one of the foundation stones of our society; it provides our children with the basic entry to a good life and a prosperous future. So it saddens me to hear government members once again speaking about education as if they were in the opposition. We in the opposition often take the role of saying, ‘We should do this; we should do that.’ That is one of the roles of the opposition. We are not in government and we do not have the power—particularly now that the government has control of the Senate—to have significant daily influence in the way our education system is run. But ‘we should’ is not a role that governments play. Perhaps they do in their first year, but not in their 10th year.

We ‘should’ now focus on the quality of education, says the member for Bass. We ‘should’ now take a cooperative approach, says the member for Bass, confirming what we on this side have known for at least the last 10 years—that for 10 years this government has not done that. Governments should not be playing ‘we should’. They actually have the power. The member for Bass is one of the most powerful men in the country when it comes to public education, one of only a few hundred who have the kind of power that he has. Governments should be saying, ‘We have done this,’ after 10 years of government and, ‘We are here now, this can be better and we are doing this.’ Government members should not be calling on themselves to do better; they should just be doing better.

They shoulda’ done it but they didn’t. They shoulda’ done it because they had the power and the money. They coulda’ done it because they had the power and the money. They probably woulda’ done it if they had Liberal state governments, but they like bagging the Labor ones too much. They shoulda’, they coulda’, they woulda’ but they didn’t—and 10 years later they are saying, ‘Now we should do it.’ They should have done it 10 years ago. It is not good enough and it makes me, not just parents, angry when the member for Bass stands there and says that a graduate from grade 10 does not know the multiplication tables. Last year I heard Brendan Nelson, at the time the Minister for Education, Science and Training, saying that 15-year-olds could not read. When this government came to power 10 years ago those kids were five. They were in grade 1 when this government came to power. If,10 years later, they still cannot read and they still do not know the multiplication tables, it is about time the government accepted some responsibility for that. Who does the member for Bass think he is, 10 years later, to walk into this place and say that we should now do something?

Children’s lives do not wait for you. They do not wait one year. Ask any parent out there who has a child who needs a teacher’s aid in their classroom because they are having learning difficulties. Ask any parent whose child comes home every day thinking that they are just not very smart because they are having trouble reading in their first year of school. Ask any parent and they will tell you a child’s life does not wait one year. It sure as hell does not wait 10 years—and by the time we come to the election next year it will be 12 years; it will be one child’s entire school life under the responsibility of this federal government. So do not come in here 10 years later and say we should now do something, without at least acknowledging that for 10 years you have not done it.

The member for Bass now calls on the Commonwealth to work cooperatively with the states. We know that this government does not play well with others—we have watched them for 10 years. That is what this government’s report card would say: ‘Did not try on education; does not work well with others.’ When it comes to the state governments, this government—quite recently, in the field of education—takes great pleasure in standing up in this House and pretending to be the state opposition. Never mind its role as the federal government, an extremely important role—indeed, one of the most important roles you can have when it comes to public education—it stands in this House and pretends to be the state opposition.

This government takes every opportunity to bag the states. It was doing it last year. It bags teachers. It bags public education. It takes every opportunity to get front-page stories about how poor our public education system is, when those on this side of the House know exactly how good it is. Go to your local schools, members on the government side, and have a look at the work that they do.

Government members now sit here and say: ‘It is important that all governments take responsibility. It is important that all governments work cooperatively.’ I say to them:  ‘Look to yourselves. Before you start calling on everybody else to do it, try and do it yourselves. You have had 10 years to work with the state governments. If you still cannot do it, if you still cannot work with the elected representatives of the states— (Time expired)

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