Deborah O'Neill (Robertson, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Prime Minister, in your answers earlier you outlined the government's plans to keep Australia's economy strong into the future. Are you aware of any risks to the strength of Australia's economic future?

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

I thank the member for Robertson for her question and I thank her for the advocacy of the interests of her constituents in this place. She understands, in representing her electorate, which is home to so many families, the importance of having a strong economy so that people can make a life—so they have the benefit of a job, so they have the benefit of a pay packet and so they can get on with doing the hard work of raising their families and supporting their families. In order for people to have the benefit of jobs we need to keep the economy strong. And this government is always focused not only on the strength of today's economy but on what we need to do today so that the economy will be strong in the future.

Much of this work requires action today, and it will show benefits over the longer term. But it must be done—investments in infrastructure, investments in national broadband, investments in a clean energy future. But the future of our country and the strength of our economy will be defined, more than anything else, by the skills and capacities and strengths of the Australian people. What that means is that there is nothing more important to the future of our nation than what is happening in education. There is nothing more important to the strength of our future economy than what is happening in classrooms in schools around the country today. That is why, in a parliamentary fortnight where the government has dealt with a range of issues, including commencing to implement the work of the Angus Houston review into asylum seekers, we have also been squarely addressing the most important issue for our nation's future, and that is what is happening in schools today.

We are determined to keep improving schools to give our kids the chance that they deserve. We are determined to keep improving teacher quality, to keep improving each and every school around the country for each and every child. And in this area, where there is nothing more important to our nation's future, we leave this parliament with the battlelines drawn. We go out of this parliament knowing we are determined to make a difference for every child in every school—to give them the ability to have a great education and to shape their prosperous futures.

The opposition leaves this parliament with the Leader of the Opposition pursuing a hit list to rip money out of public schools around the country. The opposition leaves this parliament with the opposition determined to say that there is not one school in the country, in any school system, that deserves an extra dollar. The opposition leaves this parliament wanting to rip one in seven teachers out of our schooling system and to see larger class sizes. The battle lines are drawn on education and our nation's future, and we will be fighting for it. (Time expired)

I ask that further questions be placed on the notice paper.