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

I would like to thank the member for Deakin for his question, because I know he is very interested in the policies of the government around encouraging young people into science, technology, engineering and maths subjects. As we all know, an estimated 75 per cent of jobs in the fastest growing industries require STEM skilled workers, so we have to ensure that the students of the future, the workers of the future, have the skills necessary to be able to compete not only in Australia but around the world. So as part of the National Innovation and Science Agenda, which the Prime Minister and I announced last December, we are putting tremendous effort and resources into growing science, technology, engineering and maths in schools. In fact, we are putting about $100 million into it.

Today, ACT Senator Zed Seselja, the Prime Minister and I went out to the Mother Teresa Early Learning Centre at Harrison and announced $8 million as part of that amount of money for support for Little Scientists and for Let's Count. Let's Count is run by the Smith family. It is designed to support disadvantaged families who want their children to have the chance to learn mathematics and to count from the earliest age, just as many people in much better-off households expect.

Ms MacTiernan interjecting—

It is a real measure of our equity and about supporting capacity in households for children to learn how to count, which I would have thought the member for Perth would have thought was a good idea, but apparently the member for Perth does not think it is a good idea.

Ms MacTiernan interjecting—

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