Andrew Hastie (Canning, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is always a pleasure to rise and ride the wave of outrage from those opposite, especially on an important issue like education. Education is something that we take very seriously in this chamber and, more generally, in the coalition. Our continued prosperity as Australians, the functioning of our political system, depends on young Australians having equal access to quality education across primary, secondary and tertiary levels. We cannot be any clearer on this. We care about education.

I want to make a few observations before I get started. Firstly, Labor have chosen to frame this debate in obtuse technocratic terms, as if education were all about money. Those opposite are the party of distant bureaucracy; they talk about education in conceptual terms. However, we know education is about young people, young Australians, who are our future with all their hopes, aspirations and dreams. It is not just about money. It is about people. It is about government delivering quality education.

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