Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Education, Apprenticeships and Training) Share this | Hansard source

My home state, led by probably the most hopeless Labor government in Australia—and that is saying something, because the member for Banks is from New South Wales. Even he must admit that the New South Wales Labor government is close to being the worst government in Australia, but the South Australian government is giving it a good run for its money. But I do not wish to be distracted.

Only one state has signed on to the national curriculum in January 2011. New South Wales has indicated, in September, that there will be no expectation of any classroom implementation for 2011. The Northern Territory has said that 2011 will be identified as a pilot phase, and senior secondary courses will not be implemented in the Northern Territory before 2014. Queensland has said that schools will implement the Australian curriculum in English, mathematics and science in 2012 and in history in 2013. Tasmania has given no indication of a time to start the national curriculum. Victoria has indicated that it is expected that the new Australian curriculum for English, mathematics, science and history will be introduced in all Victorian schools in 2012 and, in years 11 and 12, in 2013 and 2014. In Western Australia they have recently announced that 2011 will be regarded as a time to familiarise themselves, but substantial implementation will not occur until 2013.

So the stakeholders are against it. The state governments are not supporting it. There is no money set aside by this government for implementation of the national curriculum in terms of teacher training or teacher support. At least the coalition, recognising the failure of the government, announced that if we won the election we would put $20 million into the implementation of the national curriculum to train teachers. Of course, we won the election but lost the negotiation. As a consequence, that $20 million will not be provided. I could talk at great length about the coalition’s concerns about things like the cross-curriculum perspectives, but suffice to say we are reaching out to the government to give them an opportunity to get themselves off the hook, and I hope they will grasp it.

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