Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I know it seems like 60, but they're only starting their sixth year of government! And we've seen policy after policy after policy that has benefited the top end of town and has forgotten working Australians, middle-class Australians and those who care about an egalitarian Australia. But this decision, in terms of national preschools and kindy programs, is taking bad policy to a newer, lower level. Unbelievable! It's almost like they don't care about education. Remember when Prime Minister Turnbull used to talk about his good schoolmate Mr Gonski? I take you back to the Gonski expert panel that looked at education and the benefits thereof. This was from a banker who looked at it from an economic point of view and more broadly—there were other people on the panel. He showed that it's the best investment, better than giving money to the top end of town and hoping it magically trickles down when it has not done so in any developed or undeveloped economy anywhere in the world.

We know that investing in education is a good investment, and I repeat the comment from the member for Cunningham: the earlier you invest, the better your return. We need to get it right. Like the member for Cunningham, I was a teacher. That was more than 20 years ago. I can tell you this about my understanding of teaching: you mostly direct your attention at the middle of the class. You do need to prod the unmotivated when you can. Obviously, you don't want to hold back the talented, and, if you can, you give them a boost, but they teach themselves. I shouldn't say that, but that's the reality of the brightest kids. Most importantly, you need to give a helping hand to those that are challenged, to bring them up to the middle, to help them along. There are all sorts of reasons that a kid can be finding a classroom difficult: you need to find what works for that particular kid. If you can give an extra boost to young kids, it'll make life so much easier for the primary school teachers. I was a secondary school teacher. It will be easier for them and, as the member for Cunningham said, for the university and TAFE teachers of the future. This is money well spent.

To have a policy where the government is effectively walking away from 350,000 Australian preschoolers, so that they will miss out on the advantages of early education, is unbelievable, in the face of all of the research, all of the data, all of the literature—all of the evidence. All the Prime Minister needs to do is talk to his schoolmate, Mr Gonski. I don't know about the Prime Minister's education. It seems to have been a little bit difficult. Perhaps his chauffeur was teased by the other chauffeurs or something like that, because he doesn't seem to talk about his educational experience. If he spoke to Mr Gonski, he would know that this is money worth investing. The benefits will flow. Economic benefits will flow. In the past 10 years, what has happened with preschool enrolment? It has increased from 77 per cent to almost 93 per cent. That's good, hard, empirical data. And why did that happen? Mainly because of the work of Labor. I particularly mention the member for Adelaide, who has been tireless in this, and who persisted with the hard details to make sure that all children had access to a good preschool education. I wish her well in her new endeavours, whatever they might be. She has made a significant contribution to the Australian community.

In the face of this mountain of evidence, what do we see? We see this government, under Prime Minister Turnbull, decide to rip $440 million away from preschool funding. In a tight budget situation, $440 million might seem like a lot. However, on a whim, the Prime Minister was able to find $444 million in the space of nine days and hand it over to basically outsource the process of looking after the Great Barrier Reef. I'm not taking anything away from the Great Barrier Reef Foundation. They do good work and they're worth supporting. But we need to have a proper process. We know from Gonski and beyond, and all that study, that investing in education gives you a return. Who knows what Nobel prizes could have been won—maybe into studying the reef—if we'd invested in that early childhood education? Incredible! There are two different approaches to $444 million that the Prime Minister can take: he has a chance to help out 350,000 Australian pre-schoolers, or to hand it to the top end of town. And what does he do?

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