Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Hansard source

Independent public schools, for the member for Kingston. The member for Kingston, like lots of Labor people, is very caught up with nomenclature. The government is caught up with outcomes and substance. Everything with Labor is superficial. When they were in government every minister had seven or eight titles! We are not actually interested in nomenclature. We are interested in the substance of the policy issue. The simple fact is that every single state and territory has signed up to the government's $70 million independent public schools policy and I am very pleased about that. I do not care whether the states and territories want to call them 'independent public schools,' 'local schools' or 'local choices,' as I think they are called in New South Wales. I do not mind how they dress the policy. The point, the substance of it, is that there will be a lot more autonomy rolled out across Australia in public schools. As an advocate for public schools, as am I, and as I am sure the member for Kingston is, surely the member for Kingston would support more autonomy in public schools. Surely she would, because what it is doing in Western Australia is actually driving people to the public school system. There is an increase in Western Australia of parents choosing public schooling over non-government schooling. Western Australia is the only jurisdiction since 1977 where there has been a greater increase in enrolments in public schools than in non-government schools, and it is being driven by the independent public school model.

When this government came to power, we resolved that we wanted that rolled out as far as possible across Australia. Queensland are going to call theirs independent public schools, in spite of them now having a Labor government. The Northern Territory and Western Australia are calling them independent public schools. Victoria, Tasmania, the ACT, New South Wales and South Australia have different names for them. I do not care what they call them; they have all signed exactly the same agreement. They are all rolling out autonomy in their public schools and giving parents, principals and their leadership teams and teachers the autonomy that they want to be able to have a better public school system for their students. I am very glad about it.

I welcome the member for Kingston's interest in independent public schooling, and I ask her to work with the Australian Education Union to bring them to a happier landing. I would have thought the AEU would be in favour of public schooling, since they represent public school teachers, yet they seem to be the most opposed to independent public schools in spite of the fact that more autonomy is driving more students into public schools. What it really shows is that the AEU is not interested in the students at public schools; they are interested in the teachers in public schools and their conditions, their salaries and their emoluments. What we want on this side of the House is a relentless, laser-like focus on the outcomes of students, putting students first through more autonomy, through a better national curriculum, through better teacher training and through parental engagement. I have taken most of this time to talk about schools and I am happy to talk about universities, and if I am given the opportunity I will come back to that in a moment.

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