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

I thank the member for Bass for his question and for arranging an opportunity to visit his electorate in December, where I met with a number of parents and teachers at schools. These parents reinforced the view that I am hearing across the country—that is, parents are not receiving enough information about what is going on in their schools. They want to know what is happening and how those schools are performing. State governments already collect a wealth of data about individual schools, yet they are keeping it secret not only from parents but from students, teachers and the public. Parents in particular are demanding the right to know how their schools are performing so they can judge whether this is the right school for their child. They want to know.

Back in 2005, the Australian government had to force state governments to allow parents access to limited information. This year for the first time the state governments have to allow schools to tell parents this limited detail, this limited information about schools. It is like pulling teeth. The Australian government believes that all schools should have all information available to the public.

Parents want to be able to make an informed choice. They want comparative data. They want to know the qualifications of teachers in schools. They want to know the turnover of staff in schools. They want to know the attendance and retention rates in their schools. They want to know the suspension and expulsion rates in schools, and they particularly want to know the academic scores in schools, the test results and how they have improved or not over time. They want the feedback data that is available on parent, student and teacher levels of satisfaction. This is important information.

The state governments must also come clean on how each school is being funded. Some government schools are very clearly well resourced and funded, and some government schools in the same area, often right next door, are clearly underfunded and underresourced. The member for Bass and I saw this on our visit to Bass, where schools next door to each other had inexplicably different levels of funding. Parents need to know whether their school is getting a fair share of public funding.

Labor are all over the shop on this. They are trying to have it both ways. They talk about reforms and revolutions, but every time they take one step forward they take three steps back, because the unions jump in and pull them into line.

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