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

I thank the member for Petrie for her important question and I draw the attention of the House to the fact that the Grattan Institute today has released an important report on teacher evaluation and teacher quality. Unsurprisingly, like the reports and evidence from around the world, this report finds that the single most important thing for the quality of a child’s education is the quality of the teacher in the classroom. That is why as a government we have been systematically investing in teacher quality and in the quality of school leadership. We needed to do this because, when we came to government, whilst over 12 long years the coalition had talked about teacher quality, it had got nothing done. That was not the only problem, of course. It had talked about national curriculum, and it had got nothing done. It had talked about school transparency, and it had got nothing done. Across more than 12 long years, what we saw in education from those opposite was a track record of all talk and shameful inaction—absolutely shameful inaction.

This government has acted, as opposed to the talk, talk, talk from the other side. Our new reforms include bringing the highest quality graduates into teaching in disadvantaged schools through our Teach for Australia program. Today, as we stand here, Shaun Isbister is teaching maths at Mill Park Secondary College. Shaun got an ENTER score of 96.6 and a first-class honours degree in economics and commerce. His motto for his classroom is: results, not excuses. Shaun is one of 45—

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