Kirsten Livermore (Capricornia, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am very pleased to be able to join with my colleagues to speak to this motion in this, the National Year of Reading.

The National Year of Reading is a fantastic initiative, conceived and promoted by public libraries right around Australia and supported by a range of sponsors including the Commonwealth and state governments. The campaign, which includes programs and events in libraries and other venues in cities and towns throughout Australia, aims to turn Australia into a reading nation. It wants to inspire all of us to discover books if we have not already, and for keen readers to find new ways of connecting with the written word.

A big focus is naturally on children learning to read and being introduced to a lifelong relationship with books and reading. That is why the Year of Reading has as one of its goals to encourage families to share books with their children every day.

Of course, when we talk about reading it brings us to the important question of literacy, which is very much the focus of this motion as well. I was shocked to see the statistics quoted on the National Year of Reading's official website, and it is a statistic that is cited in Mr Adams's motion, showing that nearly half of our population—46 per cent—cannot read with fluency. That means that far too many people are unable to make the most of what this great country has to offer in the way of career prospects and lifestyle. It is why this government has made literacy is such a priority and a key focus of our education policies.

We have worked with state governments and education providers to identify those schools where students need extra assistance to develop the literacy skills they need if they are to progress through the curriculum. We have invested $540 million in those schools in the last four years, to give the schools identified as having those issues the resources they need to achieve improvements in literacy and also in numeracy. Eleven of those schools are in my electorate, and I know that the principals and teachers at those national partnership schools have appreciated the recognition that they need that extra support. They can see the results in their classrooms.

I spoke this morning with deputy principals at both Mount Archer State School and Allenstown State School in my city of Rockhampton. They described some of the initiatives that they have been able to put in place with the help of that additional funding. Both of those schools now have a literacy coach, and the literacy coaches are working and mentoring teachers within the schools to better analyse the data for where students are finding problems and also looking at how they can move those children forward with their reading skills. They are also working with parents to help address some of the problems that children are having. The important thing is that they are really seeing results. They talked about seeing results both in specific testing that happens in years 3, 5 and 7 and right across grades. So it is great to see where that funding is really having an effect in those schools. That is what the national partnership program is all about.

The other thing that teachers, parents and students can see in their schools is the massive investment in new facilities thanks to the Building the Education Revolution program and the transformation of schools that has been made possible by that funding. It is not just making a difference in the way our schools look; it is opening up possibilities for enhanced learning and engaging with students in so many new ways. You just have to talk to school librarians about the way that students have responded to the new resource centres in their primary schools to know that the goals of the National Year of Reading have received a very big boost thanks to the BER. The resource centres I have seen have become the hubs of each school and places students want to be, and they are places where students are surrounded by books, information and ideas.

Like all members on this side of the House, I have now been to dozens of schools to celebrate the opening of their new facilities. No two projects are the same, and every school has thought deeply about how to maximise the benefits of the BER funding for its students both now and into the future. Altogether there are 302 projects at 88 schools in Capricornia, including 60 libraries. Many schools received library upgrades as well as new multipurpose centres. That is a massive investment in jobs in the immediate term and an unprecedented investment in school facilities and the future of our children. All schools in Capricornia have done positive and worthwhile things with their BER money, and I want to congratulate them on the way they have used the money to really make a statement that those schools want to take their students to a whole new level of educational achievement.

In conclusion, I support my colleagues in this very important motion.

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