Luke Hartsuyker (Cowper, National Party, Deputy Manager of Opposition Business in the House) Share this | Hansard source

I welcome the opportunity to speak on the Australian Education Bill 2012. A quality education for young minds is of the utmost importance. The young people in the education system today are the doctors, lawyers and community leaders of tomorrow. Australia must provide the best quality education to give the next generations the very best chance to make use of the opportunities that will present in the time to come. Adequate funding for schools is required for providing this quality education. Australia is fortunate to have a diverse range of schools, which gives parents the opportunity to enrol their children in the school that best suits their needs.

But unfortunately we are currently burdened with the worst government in our nation's history. When we look at education and this government, all we see is more broken promises and more policy failure. Despite all the rhetoric from the government about their commitment to education, the reality is that we have had five years of policy failings from federal Labor. To say Labor is the champion of education is like saying Labor is the champion of economic management—and, after more than $260 billion in government borrowing and the trashing of consumer confidence and business confidence, we all know this government's record on managing the economy is abysmal. Indeed, instead of delivering a better education for the next generation all this government has succeeded in doing is to saddle teenagers, undergraduates and all Australians in their 20s and 30s with a mountain of debt. It is these Australians who are going to have to pay for the reckless spending of the Rudd-Gillard era and the waste and mismanagement which have been its hallmark.

This bill confirms to all members that this government is all talk and no action; it is long on rhetoric and short on policy detail; it is great at creating expectations but rarely delivers. We have seen this with their commitments to a surplus, we have seen this with their border protection policies and we have seen this with their broken promises on private health insurance.

This government believes that delivering on policy commitments can be done through the distribution of a press release. The Labor way is to forget all the crucial detail, not worry about the real cost and make sure the delivery date is after the next election. That is the Labor way of implementing policy and it is the reason they have failed Australians in so many policy areas. It is no wonder that the government is now in a shambles and that it is scrambling together an uncosted dream in relation to Mr Gonski's recommendations and the National Disability Insurance Scheme.

Before going to the specifics of this bill, it is worth reminding members of the government's poor track record on education. In the past year, the government cut $600 million from the computers in schools program. This was the program that the former Labor Prime Minister promised would give every student in years 9 to 12 'a toolbox for the 21st century', but it now sees funding cuts that will put pressure on the families that it was established to assist.

Then in MYEFO, the Treasurer announced, in his words, 'responsible cuts to education'—some $3.9 billion. That was $3.9 billion not going to schools for the sole reason that those opposite wanted to claim that they had returned the budget to surplus, not that this claim lasted long. In fact, within two months it was abandoned and the surplus claim was laid bare. Then, to end the year, the government introduced this bill into the House with a section that clearly states that the bill does not create legally enforceable obligations, nor will the failure to comply with the act affect the validity of any decision. If no part of the bill is legally enforceable, the question must be asked: why has this bill been introduced at all?

This government likes to talk about education, but, when you look at the results from just the last 12 months, you can see that the delivery does not match the promises. Since this bill has been introduced, there have been reports that state governments are still waiting on payments from August last year for rolling out the computers in schools program. While a number of computers in schools will become obsolete this year—

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