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

The point I am making, Leader of the House, is that this group of 13 are so concerned about the curriculum starting in January that they have banded together. The Independent Schools Association has banded together with the Australian Education Union, the Australian Primary Principals Association, the Australian Professional Teachers Association, the Australian Secondary Principals Association and the Independent Education Union of Australia. So the AEU’s competition, the Independent Education Union, has signed a letter with the AEU. You cannot get them together in a room and yet they have signed this letter about the national curriculum. The National Education Forum and the Association of Principals of Catholic Secondary Schools have lined up with the AEU and the chief executive officer of Principals Australia to sign a letter saying:

We believe the timeline for the project must be extended to ensure that the Australian curriculum is as good as it can be. The timelines for all stages of the project at present are unreasonably short and in the end this will be self defeating. The consultation timelines do not allow enough time to provide considered detailed feedback and do not allow the voices of teachers and other stakeholders to be heard. The speed of the development process is contrary to what is known about the conditions for effective professional development practices and educational change. It was noted that schools require time for both evaluation of the curriculum documents after they are provided and planning for their effective implementation. This will also require an extension of time.

So this group of 13, who would normally never join together, have asked the parliament to delay the national curriculum for 12 months. I appeal to the Greens in particular, who get a lot of support from the Australian Education Union, to recognise that, if we do not vote on this curriculum motion today, by February next year it will be a dead letter. And I remind the members for New England and Lyne that the New South Wales Board of Studies—not the government of New South Wales, which is pretty rancid—has indicated that there is no way the national curriculum can begin in January 2011. The New South Wales government is not going to sign on to it—from his own state of New South Wales. There are schools in the electorates of the members for Lyne and New England that are asking for this curriculum to be delayed so that it can be gotten right rather than be gotten in.

09:44:30

The Western Australia government has indicated it will not start the national curriculum. The Tasmanian government has indicated it will not start the national curriculum. The Victorian government has indicated the same thing. The only state that has indicated it will begin the national curriculum in January 2011 is South Australia,—

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