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

Thank you very much, Mr Speaker. I expect them to not be interested in education; it was their track record for a decade. Today, Shaun and 45 others are out there teaching through our Teach for Australia program, with more to come. These reforms in teacher quality mean today that the best teachers are being paid more to go to the classrooms that need them the most, and there are trials of performance based rewards in schools, including the prospect of outstanding teachers in Victoria earning $6,000 more. It means today there are differences for principal autonomy in state schools, including measures announced by the ACT government last week about school based management of staff and budgets, and in the Northern Territory business consultants are being made available to assist principals to run their schools. Today in Western Australia, as a result of our resources and reforms, more than 30 state schools are now called independent public schools, with the principals in them having greater autonomy, including the power to hire and fire. It was an honour for me to meet some of those principals on a recent trip to Western Australia.

I am asked about threats to these reforms. The threat to these reforms arises from the game of ‘pass the parcel’ played about the budget reply last week, because the $425 million which would enable us to continue these reforms is on the Leader of the Opposition’s cuts list. No more investment in principal autonomy; no more investment in paying the best teachers more to reward them; no more investment in bringing the best graduates into teaching: that is the policy of the Leader of the Opposition.

Just like the Leader of the Opposition, who believes everything he says is just dispensable, that it does not matter whether or not it is the truth, the shadow minister cannot be relied on when he makes statements. He has said, ‘The coalition believe our teachers need to be appropriately resourced, supported and rewarded.’ But they have pledged to cut the funding that makes that possible. He said today in the Australian newspaper:

“… disenchantment and disappointment teachers have in their profession will only get worse until there is a real revolution in education, which introduces competitive principals and gives schools more autonomy.”

But he has pledged to cut the funding that makes that possible—a breathtaking act of hypocrisy from those failures in education when they were in government. Even other members of their political party think they are crazy, erratic and a risk to education. Adrian Piccoli, the coalition’s shadow minister for education in New South Wales, said in the parliament of New South Wales last week:

We support every measure that can be put in place to improve teacher quality. I do not believe it is a particularly good move by the Federal Coalition to announce that it will cut this funding should it be elected.

The message to the Leader of the Opposition is clear. Even members of his own political party, the Liberal Party, believe he is a man drawn to extreme policies and crazy, erratic cuts. This just proves that the coalition are now pledged to diminish the quality of Australian education as a result of their budget reply. It is now crystal clear they are a risk to the economy, they are a risk to local schools and they are a risk to the services that working families rely on.

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