Andrew Broad (Mallee, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

No, it was very clearly directed from the Gillard government. Bear with me here. The Catholic schools were able to get local contractors. Instead of building a school hall, I recall, they were able to actually build things they wanted to build. It is not just money; it is actually how you deliver it. That is in contrast to the Gillard government's Building the Education Revolution.

The third thing that delivers good education is the home life. I do not think enough is quite made of this. It is one thing to talk about education being teachers and facilities, but the third thing is the home life. If you do not have parents who are engaged in their children's education, if you do not have children who are getting breakfast, for example, then is it little wonder that we will have disappointing educational outcomes? The challenge for us is that—over progressive years it goes from: 2016, $16 billion of federal money; 2017, $17 billion of federal money; 2018, $18 billion of federal money; then, there is a significant ratcheting up of another $18 billion on top that we are delivering. The thing that worries me is we still are not seeing our literacy and numeracy rates increasing. Part of that, I have to say, is the home life. We have too many students in the electorate of Mallee who are going to school without breakfast. I think that is something that is getting lost in the discussion around education funding. Education for a child is not just the teachers and it is not just the facilities; it is also the home life. More work needs to be done in this space to start to tackle holistic education if we are going to have our young Australians reach the potential that we want them to reach.

We have done a little bit in our office in that we deliver posters. Fifteen thousand posters have just recently gone out of '100 ways to praise a child'. They are little posters that you can stick in people's toilets. They are helping parents to encourage students in their self-esteem. We now have growth charts, as well, to try and get people to eat better. We have times tables charts. We have ABC charts. All of these sorts of things are about encouraging the home life, which is part of a holistic education. One hundred and nineteen schools and 23,000 students will be better off. This government is actually standing behind the education of our children.

When it comes to education, the ability to know what is the difference between a cut and an increase is to understand when you are getting spun a lie and when you are not. It is when you are able to do determine what somebody is telling you. I hope to goodness that our education produces people that can think for themselves rather than people that listen to the waffle that we just heard for the last 30 minutes.

The future of our education system is good because we are looking at it and delivering it, and because we have put the money aside. A needs-based funding system does work for regional Victoria, which I represent, because we have needs. I have to say: the government that I am a part of is, for the first time, able to really put our hand on our heart and say, 'We are addressing this.' We have listened to the work of David Gonski through his report. We are implementing in the most efficient way and in the best way.

Incidentally enough, there are only 15 financial members of the Australian Labor Party in the electorate of Mallee—only 15, I have to say.

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