Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak in support of the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority Bill 2008. As the Deputy Prime Minister said in her second reading speech, this bill heralds a new era of transparency and quality for Australian schools. We need a world-class education system because that is the basis of a competitive economy. In the May budget this year, the Rudd Labor government committed $19.3 billion towards its education revolution. It is about creating the kind of world-class education system that will advance our economy in a very competitive global environment. We are about delivering computers to schools and delivering trade training centres and providing parents with the income they need by way of education tax rebates to ensure that, whatever they spend when it comes to textbooks, the internet, computers and computer software, they get a refund to ensure that their children get access to the tools of the 21st century.

The bill that is before us this evening is about creating a new national authority responsible for curriculum, assessment and reporting, and introduces the new era of transparency. We need to do this because, sadly and regrettably, under the Howard coalition government for nearly 12 years we languished. I heard speaker after speaker—the member for Sturt, the member for Macarthur, the member for Dunkley—waxing lyrically about the contribution of the Howard coalition government. But they were not content with injecting ideology into the workplaces of Australia; they were about injecting ideology into the schools and universities of our country. They are now bemoaning the fact that we want transparency, accountability, honesty and integrity in our education system and bemoaning the fact that they do not have the opportunity to impose their conservative ideology in our schools. For 12 years we had confrontation. People who had devoted their lives to the education of children, public school teachers and their unions, and parents who had chosen to send their children to public schools, were criticised. The public education system in my state was criticised by the Howard coalition government. It was about values they wanted to impose in our system. But I say to those sitting opposite: it is about helping our children, educating them and giving them the best chance in their lives. Giving a child from a working-class background an opportunity to be educated is the greatest way to give that child the best chance for a career and for advancement. It is about social justice.

The legislation before us is about ensuring that our students in schools like Bremer State High School, Ipswich State High School, Rosewood State High School, Redbank Plains State High School, Boonah State High School and Lockyer District State High School have the same kind of chance as children who go to Brisbane Grammar School, Churchie and Nudgee. We need to ensure that our schools that are suffering disadvantage receive as much support as possible. I have some tremendous private schools in my electorate: Ipswich Grammar School, Ipswich Girls Grammar School, St Edmund’s boys college, St Mary’s girls college, Faith Lutheran College. They are tremendous high schools, and there are parents who struggle to send their children there because they choose to do so, believing that is the best way to advance their children’s education. Sometimes they do it for religious reasons, sometimes they do it for other reasons, but they want the best for their kids. It does not matter whether children go to St Eddie’s or to Bremer, they should have the same advantage in life and they should be able to be taught the same kind of curriculum. This bill is about a new era for children who attend those schools in my electorate.

I am sick and tired of the blame game that we hear from those who were in the Howard government. If they want to look at the facts they should have a look at the legacy they left us to deal with. They left us with 6.5 million Australians with no post-school qualifications. I recommend they have a look at the OECD Program for International Student Assessment and the terrible tale of underperformance which is linked to disadvantage. There was a real decline in literacy levels in this country and our school retention rates to year 12—or senior, as we say in Queensland—flatlined under the Howard coalition government, according to the 2007 ABS report Schools, Australia. The statistics are damning. Under the Howard coalition government our children were left at tremendous disadvantage. The children in those government schools in my electorate have been disadvantaged by the legacy of the Howard coalition government.

The bill before us this evening delivers on our election commitment to establish a national curriculum for all Australian schools. One year on from our election to government, we have been getting on with the job of delivering what we call the education revolution to Australia. We in the Labor Party aspire to build a world-class education system because many of the people who sit on this side of the House have enjoyed the advantage of education and what it has provided for us. It has given many of us the opportunity in life to be here in this House with the honour of representing our electorates. A world-class education system will enhance our economy and make sure we have a smart and competitive country. We are not about to let our education system wither and decline, as happened after more than a decade of neglect under the Howard coalition government. We are about cooperative federalism, about collaboration in dealing with state governments, whether they are Labor or coalition, to ensure that our ambitious agenda for education is fulfilled. We are not about to start criticising coalition governments, whether they are in Western Australia or elsewhere in the future. We want to work with them to ensure that our national curriculum is established and that our children have the advantages they need.

This bill seeks to establish the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority under the Commonwealth Authorities and Companies Act of 1997. It will take over the work of the Interim National Curriculum Board, which was established in April 2008. The new board will be a statutory authority reporting to the parliament and to the ministerial council of education ministers—and that is just another example of cooperative federalism under the Rudd Labor government. The board will be responsible for the management of curriculum, assessment and reporting at the national level. The new authority will enable a combined focus, including more effective transparency and accountability mechanisms, that will meet the needs of students, parents, teachers and the broader community.

I am the parent of two teenage daughters. I am pleased to say that my youngest daughter is finishing senior school this year, and my wife and I rejoice at that fact. Both my daughters went to state schools. In their primary school years they both attended Raceview State School and Bremer State High School. Both did well at those schools because of their own commitment and also the wonderful contribution of the staff at those schools. They are not teachers who just do nine-to-five or nine-to-three type jobs. The teachers at those state schools make a big difference in the lives of those children. I was pleased to be at Bremer State High School last Friday to speak at the graduation of the year 12s and to see the affection of those children for their teachers, the many hugs, kisses and handshakes and the genuine concern of the teachers for their students.

I want to commend one particular teacher, Mrs Tierney—I do not even know her first name because I know her as Mrs Tierney—who is my youngest daughter’s legal studies teacher. She decided this year—this is the level of commitment that she made—to spend time away from her partner and stay with her folks in Ipswich, even though she lived down at the Gold Coast, because she was so committed to the classes that she taught at Bremer State High School. That is the level of commitment that we see from some of our teachers in both the public sector and the private sector. I want to commend those teachers in those public schools because they make a huge contribution to the lives of those children. I would defy anyone in this House not to be able to recall teachers that made a big difference in their lives. I can recall Mrs Lorraine Adams, my year 12 modern history teacher who encouraged me to go on and study arts/law at the University of Queensland. I recall other teachers who made big impacts on my life. I am sure there are teachers who made big impacts on the lives of all the members of this House. To think that the Howard coalition government would criticise the teachers and the teachers unions is a national disgrace.

The historic decision behind this legislation to establish a new national education authority was reached on 2 October this year at COAG, and it was achieved after consultation. That is what it is about; it is about talking with stakeholders. It is not about criticism and confrontation.

A national curriculum will benefit students across the country. It will benefit teachers, of course, who have to teach that curriculum, but it will benefit the students as well because we know that over 80,000 students move interstate each year. They transfer schools and they will not be disadvantaged. In my electorate we have the biggest military base in the country, the RAAF base at Amberley. We have got thousands of people who live near the base in suburbs like Yamanto, Flinders View and Raceview and even further afield into the federal electorate of Oxley down at Forest Lake and Springfield.

I have spoken to a lot of members of the military who work on the base and I have spoken to their partners. Getting access to dentists and doctors is a challenge. Finding sporting teams and cultural groups and activities for their children is important. But when they move interstate they often find they are not sure which particular grade to go into. They are not sure whether or not what they were being taught in Sydney, Melbourne or Perth is the same as what they are being taught when they come to Ipswich. So a national curriculum will make a huge difference in the lives of the children who live in my electorate of Blair, particularly in and around Ipswich. That is welcome news for the thousands of defence families who live in the electorate of Blair in south-east Queensland. It will ensure that children who live in and around Ipswich will not be detrimentally affected. The parents and the military want the best for their kids but those military families suffer particular disadvantage because every few years they often get moved to Townsville, Darwin, Newcastle or wherever, or their mother or father is often required to serve overseas, so they are separated and they suffer tremendous disadvantage. To ensure their kids have a national curriculum is just one way to equalise the opportunity for those kids.

This particular bill delivers on our promise about transparency in schools. I do not think there would be a parent who did not have some difficulty reading the report you get back in relation to how your child did at school. Sometimes the reports are not as detailed as possible or indeed sometimes they are not quite as easy to understand as possible. I think I am reasonably intelligent; I have got a few university degrees and I think I can read pretty well. But there have been times when I have read school reports and have rung up the teacher or the principal just to find out how my children went. It is important that school report cards and what we tell our parents is open, transparent and easily understandable so parents can understand how their children are actually going at that school.

We want to ensure that our children get the best education possible and so we want to know whether they are attaining academic success or they are struggling. It is very important that we have transparency when it comes to reporting by schools—but it should not be seen as an opportunity to attack teachers who work hard in our schools or the teachers unions who represent those teachers. This reporting regime will be overseen by the new authority charged with implementing the national curriculum, national literacy and numeracy tests, assessment and reporting.

I have got to confess that maths was not my strongest subject at school. I liked English, I loved history and I was not too bad at science, although chemistry and physics were bit of a struggle. But I am really strongly of the view that English, maths, science and history are critical to children’s education. It is important that they get as broad an education as possible in the younger years and I have to say this: the fact that the Howard government in its preschool education funding was only committing about one-fifth of what our OECD partners were committing to preschool education was a terrible indictment of the Howard government.

When it came to primary education they failed as well because the children who got taught at the schools and who were then tested in literacy and numeracy often failed. I have known children, friends of my daughters, who failed in circumstances where you really wondered why that was happening. Students will lose out if we do not create a national curriculum and certainly those families in my electorate associated with the military will lose out as well.

This is a wonderful piece of legislation. Unlike the member for Dunkley, I can see the broader picture and where this fits in to the whole matrix of our education revolution. I am urging the Deputy Prime Minister to really think seriously about increasing our school infrastructure funding even beyond what we have committed. We have committed $546.6 million during 2008 to state and territory governments and school sectors, particularly through our capital grants program, and that is about helping the most needy schools to construct and upgrade their school facilities. When I look around at the public schools across Ipswich, the Lockyer Valley and Boonah Shire, I can see the disadvantage and I can see the advantage of the kind of assessment that we are talking about in terms of accountability and transparency. Those are the kinds of schools that will benefit so much if the information is there and available. That will show the disadvantage that they suffer and it will mean that those schools, whether they are public or private, will then have a legitimate claim and case for increased funding.

In my area I am pleased to see that we have been rolling out significant assistance to both public and private schools. Our trade training centre policy has had a benefit in my electorate. St Edmund’s Christian Brothers College, which is a fantastic school in the area of trade training, particularly in the wet trades and in engineering, has applied as the lead school and received $2.9 million under our trade training centre program of $2.5 billion over 10 years. The two grammar schools have linked in and the Ipswich Trade Training Centre will make a big difference in the lives of the kids in my electorate. But the public schools also have benefited by the kind of assistance that we have been giving to the state education system.

In conclusion, I would like to say to the schools in my electorate that have been affected by the recent floods and storms: the Rudd government will be with you and stand beside you and give you the kind of help that you need to ensure that our children in the federal electorate of Blair are educated well. I commend the P&C and the teachers in both the public and the private schools for the work they have done, and I commend the bill to the House.

See this speech in context