Peter Slipper (Fisher, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question today is to the Prime Minister. I refer the Prime Minister to her very sensible comments yesterday when she said it was impossible to understand Western literature without understanding the Bible. Could the Prime Minister therefore indicate where in the government’s draft national curriculum the Bible is mentioned?

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

Thank you very much and it will not surprise you, Mr Speaker, when I say I have not brought the national curriculum with me. Of course the national curriculum is available through the website of the Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority. What you will find when you look at the national curriculum, whether you look at the literature stream, whether you look at any part of it, is that it is conveying to students what has made our civilisation, what has made Western civilisation, including the values that guide us, the democratic structures under which we live, the rule of law under which we live, what brings us together, what explains our history as a nation, what explains our history with Indigenous Australians. As you would imagine, at different levels, as children grow, learn and are more capable of critical assessment, they are asked to reflect on these things, to analyse them, to comment on them and to discuss these questions, which is exactly the kind of education I had as a child.

As well as having a great state school education as a child, which challenged me to think about the great moral concepts of our age, I also had the benefit of a very rigorous grounding at Mitcham Baptist Church, which included endless committing to memory of catechism. I was a prizewinner at it, and it served me in good stead. I have been known to joke with the Leader of the Opposition in the past that one day we will go head to head on our ability to recite sections of the Bible by rote. I think I could back myself in for some large slabs of it.

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

Mr Speaker, on a point of order: the Prime Minister was asked where in the national curriculum she could point to the Bible being mentioned. If she does not know the answer, perhaps she could take it on notice and get back to the House.

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

The Prime Minister is aware that she has to be directly relevant. That is the standing order. It does not mean, and it cannot be interpreted as, a direct answer as the person who posed the question would believe. This answer is, I believe, sufficiently directly relevant to the question to go beyond the sort of relevance rule that we saw in the last parliament.

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

My point was simply this: with a great education, which includes developing your critical faculties as well your understanding of moral concepts, you are equipped as an adult to make your own decisions. I have made mine, in good conscience as an adult. They are not the same as others in this place; that is to be expected. We live in a democracy which values free conscience and free thinking. That is the kind of education I want for Australian children. That is the kind of education I believe the national curriculum is aimed at.

Peter Slipper (Fisher, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, to assist the Prime Minister, I seek leave to table a copy of the draft Australian curriculum.

Leave not granted.