Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Moreton for his question and his interest in education. As members of the House are aware—and a number of members of the House actually availed themselves of the opportunity of meeting with him—Joel Klein, New York’s Chancellor of Schools, was in Australia this week, and in Canberra, speaking on education reform. He addressed a major event on the transformation of school education in Melbourne on Monday. He spoke at the National Press Club on Tuesday, and it was my pleasure to join him in Sydney last night at a dinner hosted by UBS with a number of leading business identities and education leaders to talk further about education reform. I take this opportunity to thank UBS for sponsoring not only last night’s event but also Joel Klein’s visit to this country.

I was able to speak last night at the event with Joel Klein and whilst there I announced that the Australian government will introduce a national program recruiting and training high-achieving graduates to teach in challenging schools around Australia. I called on business at that dinner to support this initiative and I am pleased to be able to say that our business community has already responded. Organisations like UBS, Microsoft and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation have already said that they would be involved. BCA, the Business Council of Australia, have already confirmed that they will play a coordinating role. I would like to thank them for their interest and these early indications of support.

This is also a scheme where the Victorian government has shown leadership and enthusiasm. It is already moving to implement a program, and the Rudd Labor government is committed to working with Victoria and states and territories around the nation to deliver this program. This scheme will work to recruit committed graduates, provide them with intensive training and mentoring, and then have them teach in some of the most challenging school environments in this country. This is a program about bringing the best and the brightest to the schools where they will make the most difference.

Beyond this initiative on teacher quality, which forms part of the government’s half a billion dollar plan for teacher quality—a plan that will be discussed and pursued by the Prime Minister at COAG this Saturday—the government is also determined to deliver a new era of transparency in school information. Joel Klein’s principal message to this nation is: if you are going to deliver excellence and equity—

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