Michael Hatton (Blaxland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

With the exception of the member for Forrest—whose heart is good and in the right place, and who has taken this particular motion and understood it, and understood the problems we have—being lectured by the government about education is like being lectured by Family First on the issue of power in the media. There is no understanding whatsoever of the fact that with power there is also responsibility.

In the past 10 years this government should have done something to fix the fundamental problems that we have—of eight jurisdictions and nine different qualifications at the level of the HSC. I know that John Dawkins started the process of trying to get national profiles and national standards, of trying to allow one child in Western Australia to have their school qualifications recognised in New South Wales and to have teacher qualifications in New South Wales recognised in South Australia. We are looking at two decades—half Labor, half Liberal. We are looking at a problem that that has been addressed in such a manner that the approach that has been taken has been glacial. And a core part of that problem has been the innate nature of a lot of the siloed education departments Australia wide. It would take a government committed to fixing the problem to address that, though. In 2006, we have not only teachers and their qualifications not recognised Australia wide, with a process that started over 20 years ago, but also our students are without common curricula Australia wide. Those are fundamental things that should be focused on.

What are the government members, with the exception of the member for Forrest, doing? What we have heard is claptrap. What we have had is the government’s culture wars. What we have is an attempt simply to use some straw figures and argue for a particular value-laden approach to these things. That will not help a kid from Western Australia to come to Sydney and have their educational qualifications recognised, and it will not help a teacher from Queensland in being able to walk into a school in Tasmania or one of the other states and easily be able to practise. Good government is about putting effort into doing good and proper things; this government has not done that for 10 years. The great speech from the member for Parramatta proved that. This government needs to be condemned in this regard.

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