Kelly Hoare (Charlton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise in support of this matter of public importance motion, which condemns the government for its failure in our education system. As a nation, it is imperative that we invest strongly in education to ensure our long-term prosperity. Labor has already announced a range of policies as part of the education revolution under a Labor government. Labor in government would provide 15 hours a week of preschool education to all four-year-olds through learning at play. Labor would also establish day care centres in school grounds where this is appropriate. We have also announced our commitment to trade education and to childcare education and we will support students to study to become maths and science teachers.

Today, as we have heard, the Leader of the Opposition and the member for Perth announced federal Labor’s plan for a national curriculum scheme for Australian schools and the setting up of a national curriculum board. The concept of a curriculum guarantee for students across Australia essentially means that all students will, at the very least, be exposed to a given set of knowledge, content, concepts, skills and understandings. To succeed as a nation in a competitive, technological 21st century economy, Australia needs an education system that reflects and supports teachers and students through current technology. This system needs to be flexible enough to take advantage of future relevant developments in technology. A federal Labor government is committing to investing in our long-term prosperity. The announcement today will ensure that students are consistently exposed to current curriculum material of the highest quality.

Teachers in Australia need and deserve the support of our nation’s governing bodies. We acknowledge that the work of teachers needs to be efficient and sustainable so that we are able to keep young and beginning teachers in our schools. We must maintain and develop our teaching intellectual capital for the benefit of both our students and our nation. Indeed, the report tabled this week from the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Education and Vocational Training recommends that there be an online national clearing house for current research and resource development. This would provide teachers with up-to-date, accurate resources and access to, among other things, current research. It could also be envisaged that, under Labor’s national curriculum, lessons and modules could be posted online and shared. This would allow for best practice to be developed.

The committee’s recommendation is absolutely contrary to the proposal by the Minister for Education, Science and Training for performance based pay, which would pit teacher against teacher. The minister’s proposal would mean that any innovation in teacher development would not be shared. This would ultimately mean that our students would not be universally exposed to the best quality resources that must be available to all our educators.

It should be noted that the concept of a curriculum guarantee is not a concept that has been designed to limit the professional autonomy of teachers, but rather is designed to enhance this autonomy by increasing the number of high-quality options available to teachers in relation to curriculum material that could be presented to students. The key to teacher professionalism is a creative implementation of curriculum, not its design and constant revision. If a child were to move, for example, from Toronto in New South Wales to Perth in Western Australia, federal Labor’s plan for the national curriculum scheme would reduce the likelihood of gaps in that child’s education—and the gaps which may be experienced in the education of the 80,000 or so students who move interstate each year. It should be further noted that the previous federal Labor government was almost successful in establishing a national curriculum more than a decade ago.

Labor is committed to ending the blame game between federal and state governments, whereas the Howard government and the education minister seem to be only committed to taking credit for any advances or extra funding of our schools and blaming the states or the education union when things go wrong. That is why the Leader of the Opposition has appointed the member for Fraser as the shadow minister for federal-state relations. It does not matter which side of politics is in government at any level or in any state or territory; there must be cooperation for the benefit of all Australians. Australia is at its best when everyone is pulling together in one direction. The Prime Minister does that from time to time for a photo opportunity but, when push comes to shove, he is quite happy to throw the hand grenade.

We need a long-term approach to how we build productivity for the country, and that is best done through a cooperative relationship with the states on real projects which count. We must lift our long-term productivity growth and we must invest in and build our future prosperity. To do this, we must invest in young people and their education. It is important that we argue a long-term vision for this country’s prosperity against a set of Labor values that says that you can have a strong economy without throwing the fair go out the back door. (Time expired)

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