Yvette D'Ath (Petrie, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak in support of the Social Security Amendment (Training Incentives) Bill 2009. Before I go to the key areas of the bill, I will comment on some of the notable statements by the member for O’Connor. Firstly, I sincerely disagree with the member for O’Connor’s statement that he would not let most teachers loose with Bunsen burners. I think that there are some fantastic teachers out there who should be commended for the work that they are doing. We need to make sure that we are supporting those teachers. I am sure that, if the member for O’Connor looked beyond the Building the Education Revolution funding that is being provided by this government and actually looked at this government’s overall policy in relation to our education revolution, he and many of the members on the other side of the House would see that this government has committed to an overall approach to improving education in our schools, both public and private, across this country and that that includes working on a national curriculum and a whole range of initiatives. Certainly the schools in my area welcome the debate and discussion on these key areas as much as they welcome the investment in school infrastructure that they believe is also important.

The member for O’Connor seems to be arguing that we should make sure that students are fully equipped for the workforce by grade 10. You would almost be led to believe, based on the comments just made by the member for O’Connor, that we should get rid of grades 11 and 12 altogether because everyone should be suitable for the workforce by grade 10.

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