Stephen Smith (Perth, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Education and Training) Share this | Hansard source

The subject of the MPI today is:

The Government’s failure over ten long years to act and deliver the long-term investment in education required for Australia’s future economic prosperity.

What this country needs is a government that is absolutely committed to long-term investment in Australia’s education at every level, whether that is pre-primary or early education; primary, secondary or tertiary education; vocational education and training; universities; or on-the-job ongoing professional development and training. What we need is a long-term commitment to these things and not what we can expect from this government in the next six months: a short-term political fix. A short-term political fix is what we always see from the government when it comes to education in the run-up to an election. The Prime Minister and the government, the Liberal Party and the National Party, are threatening our future because they are squandering the proceeds of economic growth and of the resources boom to China by refusing to properly invest—that is, with both quantity and quality—in our education system at every level.

We are the beneficiaries of 16 years of continuous economic growth and, in more recent years, a minerals and petroleum resources boom to China. The government has complacently and neglectfully failed to make investments at every level of our education system to ensure that our future prosperity is guaranteed. What do all of the statistics show? All of the statistics show that our productivity is now falling behind in international comparative terms. The growth in our productivity is now falling away. The single most important thing we can do to guarantee our future prosperity and to guarantee our ongoing international competitiveness is to invest in the education, training and skills of our people and our workforce. That is why Labor says it is time for an education revolution. That is why Labor says it is time for an investment in human capital. That is why Labor says it is time to stop the blame game. It is time to stop saying, ‘This has nothing to do with the national government.’ It is time to start making the investments required to guarantee our ongoing and future prosperity. That is the shameful and neglectful approach that this government has taken. If Australia is to have a future as a modern, dynamic economy—

See this speech in context