Stephen Smith (Perth, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Education and Training) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. I refer the Prime Minister to the OECD report Education at a glance 2006, which concluded that a one-year increase in the average level of education of the workforce would boost economic growth by one per cent. Does the Prime Minister agree that there is a fundamental link between investment in education and productivity and growth in the economy?

John Howard (Bennelong, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I think there are clearly linkages between investment in education and productivity and growth in the economy. I think there are also linkages between the quality of the outputs of education and the economy. I think the Australian economy will benefit enormously from our re-embracing of technical and further education. I think the Australian economy will benefit enormously if we can have relatively uniform and much higher standards of English, arithmetic and literacy.

Jenny Macklin (Jagajaga, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Families and Community Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Ms Macklin interjecting

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The member for Jagajaga!

John Howard (Bennelong, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I think the Australian economy will benefit enormously if the 80,000 school students who travel from one part of the nation to another are not disadvantaged by a lack of synchronisation between the curricula of the various states. That is why my colleague the Minister for Education, Science and Training has been arguing so strenuously with her state colleagues to bring about a greater uniformity of curricula. Investment in education is important, but standards in education are even more important. And the real barrier to standards lies in the hands of those people who have sought over the years to impose their own ideology on education in this country. This country’s economy will be massively boosted if, in the years ahead, we can produce a larger number of young men and women out of the school system whose basic proficiency in English and in numeracy, and their literature understanding, is much higher than it is at the present time. That remains a major objective of this government.