John Forrest (Mallee, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am pleased that the member for Parramatta finally got to the real issue here—that is, in accordance with our Constitution, states run the education system. But this is a good resolution and I commend the member for Bass for bringing it to the House’s attention. We are talking about those who are the future of the nation and the best investment we can possibly make is to ensure they get first-class, world-benchmarked education.

Other speakers have spoken about literature and English, but my real concern is science. The minister has provided me with a whole range of letters—de-identified letters—that she has received in response to her recent initiatives. This is an extract from a letter from a Victorian parent, and I suspect I know who that is because I have received similar letters. There is widespread community concern about the lack of consistency in national standards. This writer says:

My daughter attends a state school in Victoria in year 8. Next year, she will have maths and science combined in one subject. This is called a ‘progressive curriculum’ in Victoria, and I am outraged by it.

I, similarly, am outraged. When I was at school I just loved the maths and I loved the science, but they were distinctly different subjects. That is just another example that I would give of the fads that seem to be the course of our education system. The community is demanding an end to these fads, and that we stick with consistency and rigorous standards. The nation desperately needs the mathematicians who eventually emerge as engineers. It definitely needs scientists who can investigate and research pure science. People need to understand that these are distinctly different subjects and not one and the same.

The community is also concerned about literacy and numeracy, and other speakers have drawn attention to that. But it is an indictment on us as a nation that there are currently eight separate curricula, nine separate year 12 certificates and five different eligible school starting ages. The opposition members have argued that this is the government’s fault after being 10 years in government. But I have been here a long time—I note the member for Parramatta has only recently arrived—and I can remember the efforts by former ministers. There was Minister Kemp, followed by Minister Nelson and now there is Minister Bishop, trying to work with the states to hear the community concern that is rising consistently.

The member for Macquarie makes a very valid point about how mobile our communities are—especially those in rural Australia—and the complaint about different standards across the board. I represent an electorate that has about 1,500 kilometres of state borders, half with South Australia and the other half along the Murray River in New South Wales. Communities’ members are moving, because of jobs and so forth, and it alarms parents to realise that their children have to endure different standards—sometimes the standards are lower; thankfully, sometimes they are higher, but there is just no consistency.

That is what this resolution is calling for and I am confident that the Howard-Vaile government is committed to raising academic standards across our nation—contrary to the member for Parramatta’s contribution. We have seen some progress on this matter. But I am embarrassed by any international benchmarking standard which shows that 30 per cent of Australian students did not reach the basic standard of literacy that would be required to meet the demands of lifelong learning in a rapidly changing knowledge-intensive society.

So this is a good resolution. I continue to naively hope that one day this chamber will unite in the way it presents itself. This is not an opportunity for playing politics. It is not an opportunity for laying blame. It is an opportunity to urge both the Commonwealth and state governments to continue to work together so that we can invest where we should invest—in the future of our most precious resource, our young Australians.

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