Sid Sidebottom (Braddon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Why is investing in education crucial to the government’s reform agenda?

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

I thank the member for Braddon for his question. He came to this parliament after a proud track record in education, having been a school teacher and a school principal, and in this place he has pursued education issues because of his passion and enthusiasm to make sure that every child gets a great education. As I have said, my vision, the government’s vision, for the future of this country is that we have a strong economy that is ready for the challenges of the future and that we have the benefit of opportunities for all Australians—that every Australian gets the opportunity to succeed and prosper. But the truth is that in our nation today there are children who do not get a fair opportunity to succeed and prosper because there are children who do not get a great quality education. As a government we have set about, reform by reform, piece by piece, transforming that. We have understood that in order to make sure every child gets a great opportunity you need to start with early childhood education. We have invested in making sure that children in the year before formal school get the benefits of preschool and early education that are vital to ensuring that kids get a good opportunity in life.

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

Mr Pyne interjecting

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

I am not surprised that the shadow minister is interjecting at this point because the track record of the Howard government in this area was ‘Can’t be bothered looking at early childhood education’.

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

The Prime Minister will resume her seat. There is a limit to what I believe people think that they can do in defiance of standing order 65(b) and the Manager of Opposition Business continues—

Luke Hartsuyker (Cowper, National Party, Deputy Manager of Opposition Business in the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Hartsuyker interjecting

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

He should actually contain himself, and he is warned. The member for Cowper is close to being warned. That is exactly my point. Ten minutes in and I have been subjected to 10 minutes of what I would describe as prattling. The Prime Minister has the call.

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

A great quality school education is a foundation stone for opportunities in life. That is why this government has delivered a transformational reform agenda on school education and matched it with new resources. We have almost doubled the amount of money going into school education. We are working on teacher quality, national curriculum, transparency, trade training centres, reform to empower principals and reforms to reward teachers. We have also embarked on huge capital improvements to schools such as Building the Education Revolution, trade training centres and computers in schools. We are proud of that agenda.

We care passionately about every child in every school and the retort of the opposition to this after the election campaign was ‘Cut school funding’ because that is what they stood for in the election campaign. We too understand that, in order to give people opportunities in life, we need a vocational education and training sector that is ready for modern challenges and is a truly national system. That requires reform and it requires resources and we have been driving reform and providing new resources to vocational education and training. The opposition slogan in this regard in the last election was ‘Cuts to apprenticeships’. That is what they stood for.

We too have been driving a reform agenda in universities so that they can be properly resourced and properly structured for the modern age. We know that the opposition stands for neglect of universities. We believe in opportunity for all. We understand education is the critical foundation stone to that and we are getting on with the job of delivering the education revolution as a result.