Mike Symon (Deakin, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Education, Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations and Minister for Social Inclusion. Will the minister detail the government’s progress in driving prosperity and opportunity as part of its education revolution?

Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Deakin for his question. I know he has a deep interest in our education revolution and in making sure that every Australian student gets the best possible start in life. It was my pleasure earlier today—with the Prime Minister; the member for Canberra, Annette Ellis; and the ACT Minister for Education and Training, Andrew Barr—to visit Gordon Primary School. There we saw some bright young people working hard on their numeracy, working hard on their maths, doing calculations in their head that I think many members of this House would find quite challenging. One of the things that was absolutely reinforced when we saw those young people at work was that every Australian child deserves to be in a great school, every Australian child should get a great education.

I was pleased that this morning, when visiting that school, the Prime Minister and I were able to announce a practical measure to make a difference on literacy and numeracy. That is a school which is going to benefit from $40 million of pilot programs, part of our $577 million dedicated to literacy and numeracy. And that school is particularly going to benefit through an allocation of $286,920 to help it further the numeracy program that it has there and which we saw in operation today.

The announcement that we made today is for $40 million for pilot programs around the country in 29 schools—schools in all states and territories and in all school systems. This is a first practical step in our $577 million literacy and numeracy plan. It was great to be at that school today. Seeing those children reinforces the message that the Prime Minister put yesterday, which is: we need a revolution in the quality of Australian schooling right throughout this nation. Whether we are talking about literacy or whether we are talking about numeracy, we know that there is more to do. If I could give the House one statistic which should cause it to reflect on the need to focus on quality in schooling, to focus on quality in teaching, and to focus on a new national arrangement for schools in disadvantaged communities, it would be this statistic. If we look at OECD information, in 2006 Australia was significantly outperformed in reading performance by five countries: Korea; Finland; Hong Kong, China; Canada and New Zealand. In 2000, only Finland outscored Australia. This is graphic proof that, when it comes to education standards, standing still is going backwards. It is graphic proof that, when it comes to the education standards of the world and of our competitors, unless we further invest this nation will go backwards.

As the Prime Minister outlined yesterday, we are committed to a new era of quality in Australian schools. We are committed to a new era of transparency. We are committed to a new era—an education revolution—that will ensure that, whether a child is from the most humble of backgrounds or the most advantaged, they will go to a great school. I have been amazed to see the reaction of the opposition to this. We saw the Leader of the Opposition leader go out and basically say, ‘I tried to do a bit of this and I failed.’ We did not need the opposition leader to confirm that he is a failure. Every Australian student and every Australian parent already knew that he was a failed education minister. And, in case there was any doubt, members of his backbench make sure that members of the media understand it every day. We are leaving that era of failure behind us to deliver an education revolution so that every child goes to a great school and every child gets a great education.