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

I am delighted to get another question from my own side with respect to the government's announcement today, and I am shocked, surprised, that the opposition has not been able to summon up the courage to ask me a question about school funding. Ataturk said that when the battle changes a good general changes their battle tactics. Unfortunately, the Leader of the Opposition is still using last week's questions pack and asking the same questions he would have asked before the government's announcement before question time, but I guess that will change with experience in opposition.

I have good news for the member for Swan. In fact, Western Australia will gain remarkably from the announcement that we made before question time. Over the next four years they will gain $120 million more in extra funding that was ripped away by the former minister for education, the Leader of the Opposition, before the election. In the pre-election fiscal outlook, the former minister for education, now the Leader of the Opposition, took $120 million from Western Australia—punished them for the good outcomes that they are achieving—because Labor do not like the independent public schools model in Western Australia. They ripped that money away and the coalition today announced that we are putting that money back. We want the debate to move from this debate about school funding to something that really matters in education beyond school funding, and that is quality and standards—teacher quality, parental engagement, a robust curriculum and more local decision making—

Ms King interjecting—

And, yes, phonics. The member for Ballarat raises phonics. Yes—the coalition is deeply committed to orthodox teaching methods and phonics, because we want students to leave school being able to read and write. The member for Perth, very respectfully, has written on this subject and said exactly what I am saying today—that things like phonics are exactly the way to improve the literacy and numeracy of our students. She said it. She said modern fads are teaching our students to hate school, and I agree with the member for Perth about that and I am glad to have her on our team.

Western Australia will win from the decisions that we have made today. We are putting back the money that Labor ripped from schools in Queensland, Western Australia and the Northern Territory, and the Western Australians will be able to get on with that excellent work they are doing in giving more autonomy and local decision-making to independent public schools, which is transforming public schooling, not just in the schools but in the communities in which those schools reside.

See this speech in context