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

who has had only a rudimentary association with education. This will come as a shock to her—I am going to let her in on a secret—the Commonwealth does not own or operate any schools. I know it is a shock. The states operate schools. They own schools. They employ teachers. This is what the Commonwealth will do: we will do our bit. We will play our part. We will put Commonwealth resources into our priorities, the states' priorities and territories' priorities to get the best results possible. But we will not have the red tape, the regulation, the school performance institute and the management plans by ministers from Canberra—Canberra central command and control. In closing, the Leader of the Opposition agreed with us. Before the election, in his deal with Victoria, he convinced Dennis Napthine to sign up. Dennis Napthine said:

At the last minute, very late, even as late as Saturday night, we had an agreement, finally, from the federal government that they were prepared to amend the Education Act to confirm the autonomy of Victorian government schools.

You are hung by your own words.

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