Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Education, Apprenticeships and Training) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations, Education, and Social Inclusion. I refer the minister to her comment today in relation to the Principal Autonomy Report—commissioned by the previous government in early 2007—that has sat on her desk since December 2007 and which she now claims as her own. I quote from the report:

It is important principals have the support and the flexibility they need to respond to the needs of their students.

Will the minister now amend the guidelines for the Building the Education Revolution to give principals and local school communities the flexibility they want to respond to the needs of their students by building what they need and want rather than being forced to accept Julia Gillard memorial school halls that they neither need nor want.

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

I genuinely thank the shadow minister for this question because what it enables me to say to the House is a point that needs to be made. It is that the Liberal Party in government talked about things to do with education—it just did not get anything done. It talked about transparency but never got anything done. It talked about a national curriculum but never got anything done. It talked about improving teacher quality but never got anything done. It talked about principal autonomy but never got anything done. The Liberal policy about education is no more than this: get a cheap line, make a cheap statement, see if you can get yourself in the newspaper. If you are really desperate, claim that there is a Maoist in a curriculum board—that was always a good one. Get yourself a run in the Australian newspaper; go home and look in the mirror and say to yourself ‘job well done’.

The problem for the Liberal Party about that approach to education, which is what they did for over 10 long years, is that it was all about them talking about themselves and not one bit of it—not one skerrick, not one minute of effort—was ever about the kids. That came last on their agenda: actually making a difference in Australian schools for Australian school children. We are a government that believes in getting things done, in the hard work necessary to drive the reforms in Australian schools that will make a difference for the kids. That is why transparency will be delivered at the start of next year. Transparency, so that we know what is happening in Australian schools. That is why a national curriculum is being developed and delivered. That is why we are driving reforms in teacher quality and school leadership. That is why we are already seeing the best of our teachers teaching in the disadvantaged classrooms that need them most. That is why we have got Teach for Australia to bring a new cohort of high performing graduates into teaching. That is why we have got HECS relief initiatives to bring maths and science specialists into teaching. That is why we have got a $1.5 billion partnership for disadvantaged schools.

Now, it should amaze and disgust this House that when I became Minister for Education you could not get a list of disadvantaged schools in this country.

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Education, Apprenticeships and Training) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I rise on a point of order. The question asked whether the minister would amend the BER guidelines so that she could walk the walk rather than just talk the talk.

Honourable Members:

Honourable members interjecting—

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It would assist if a number of people on my right just ignored comments from the member for O’Connor. That is one thing. Secondly, in approaching the point of order about relevance the Manager of Opposition Business has mentioned one aspect of his question. I think if he took the question in totality he would realise that the Deputy Prime Minister is responding to the question.

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

As I said, it should amaze and disgust this House that until we came to government it was not possible to get a list of disadvantaged schools in this country. If you sat in the chair of the minister for education and said, ‘Can you get me a list? There’s 9,500 schools in the country; get me a list of the 2,000 most disadvantaged ones,’ it could not be done. And why? Because no-one who had ever sat in that chair as a Liberal minister for education had ever cared enough about disadvantage to ask.

It was all about themselves. Not one minute of their time was ever spent driving a reform that would make a difference for Australian children. We know exactly what this Liberal Party is about courtesy of the e-mail from the Liberal leader’s office. We know that this opposition is not about policy; it is about dirt-digging. The one thing we should actually remember, though, is that when they were in government, they were not about education policy; they were about inaction. They were about carrying on in public but not one thing that made a profound difference to the quality of school education got done.

We will continue to drive the education revolution because we are about making a difference for Australian kids. And as part of that education revolution we will deliver the biggest school modernisation program in the nation’s history. Over there, looking for their dirt, mired in filth, they can keep carrying on but parents and teachers around the country know that reforms that make a difference for Australian children are being implemented. They know that the biggest school modernisation program in this nation’s history is making a difference for Australian kids.

Stuart Robert (Fadden, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Robert interjecting

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The member for Fadden!

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

I look forward to getting a question on education when the shadow minister, who bellows and yaps, has finally bothered to write a policy.