Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

The government remains committed to schools funding that is fair, equitable, needs based and improves student outcomes. We are making sure that it is being used where it counts—in teacher quality, in a better curriculum, in parental engagement, in supporting principals to make local decisions about their local school. These are the major contributors to improved student outcomes.

The Labor Party believes that the only thing that the education system needs is more money. They pay no attention to the issues of teacher quality. They pay no attention to the fact that, despite more and more money being spent on schools, the student outcomes have deteriorated. Our commitment to parents is simply this: we want to ensure that your children emerge from the school system with better skills in literacy, with better skills in numeracy and being able to understand the digital economy of the 21st century. That is our commitment. That is why we work to improve teacher quality. We are acting on the recommendations of the Teacher Education Ministerial Advisory Group: mandatory national literacy, mandatory national numeracy tests for teachers from July this year. That is our commitment—quality outcomes—not just spending money they do not know where they can find.

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