Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

What stuns me about this entire line of argument from the opposition is where they stood on education performance in their 12 years in office, when one piece of data after the other demonstrated us falling down the OECD table of education performance. Early childhood education, for example, had the lowest—the wooden spoon—performance across the OECD. Then there was the investment in government schools by those opposite: they had an appalling record over the 12 years in which they were in office. Then there was the stripping out of funds from our universities.

What we have done in the period that we have been in office, led by the Deputy Prime Minister, the Minister for Education, is give effect to an education revolution by an investment in the quality of our schools and in the infrastructure that is available to them. I say to the honourable member as he cries crocodile tears about the investment of funds into schools in Sydney and elsewhere that he should refer to the guidelines and the provisions for handling things like this.

See this speech in context