Gai Brodtmann (Canberra, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Defence) Share this | Hansard source

Shortly after I was preselected and I was running my first campaign in 2010, I was interviewed by the ACT 7.30. One of the questions I was asked in that interview was why I am Labor. I cited a number of reasons why I am Labor to my bootstraps. One of the chief reasons was Labor's commitment to education. Labor has a deep understanding of the transformative powers of education and it puts its money where its mouth is.

How do I know this? How do I know that Labor is deeply committed to and understands the transformative powers of education? It is because my sisters and I are living proof of the transformative powers of education. I come from what I call a working class matriarchy. My great-grandmother left school at 11 and worked as a domestic in the western district of Victoria. My grandmother left school at 13 and was a single mother, like my great-grandmother. She brought up seven kids on her own and worked at three jobs to keep food on the table and to pay the rent in their housing commission house. My mother, as a result of the cycle of disadvantage that my grandmother was in, had to leave school at the age of 15. She loved school, but she was dragged kicking and screaming from school at 15. Thanks to my mother's tenacity, thanks to a great public education and thanks to Labor's investment in education, my sisters and I escaped that cycle of disadvantage, those three generations of disadvantage—my great-grandmother, my grandmother and my mother. It was through those transformative powers of education.

I want and Labor wants every child to have access to those transformative powers of education, no matter what their background, where they live or what their parents earn. I want every child, particularly those experiencing disadvantage, to have access to the potential that is unlocked as a result of a great education.

Through 'Your Child. Our Future' Labor will target the needs of individual students no matter what school they go to—be it a government school, a Catholic school or an independent school. 'Your Child. Our Future' is not just about completing the Gonski reforms. It is a permanent change in our education system. Needs-based funding, which is what is so central about this program, will make sure it reaches the students who will benefit most, including students from low SES backgrounds—we have heard from my colleagues about their experiences of students from low SES backgrounds in their electorates—Indigenous students, students with a disability, students with limited English, students in small schools or in regional or remote and rural areas. This will mean a strong focus on every single child's needs. It will mean more individual attention for students. It will mean better trained teachers. It will mean more targeted resources, better equipped classrooms and more support for students with disability and special learning needs.

The government has spent its entire term putting nothing on the table but savage cuts. Labor, in contrast, has put education at the centre of our priorities through 'Your Child. Our Future'. We will honour the six-year needs-based funding agreement with the states and we will provide long-term certainty for schools by reversing the government school cuts across the next decade. As my colleague has just said, that means a $4.5 billion investment in 2018-19 alone. For the ACT, for the people of my electorate and of the electorate of my colleague the member for Fraser that will mean a $30 million investment.

Our policy has been shaped by extensive research and extensive consultation with parents, teachers, students and academics. Our policy has been shaped by best practice research and models. Our policy puts students and schools at the centre of education. It allows everyone in Australia to realise their potential, no matter how much their parents earn, where they live or their background. Our policy allows every Australian to realise their potential through the transformative powers of education. As we have heard abundantly from my colleague the member for Adelaide and my other colleagues this afternoon, we are putting our money where our mouth is. We are deeply committed to the transformative powers of education.

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