Michael Sukkar (Deakin, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Education. I refer the minister to the government's announcement recently of the appointment of the Teacher Education Ministerial Advisory Group. How is the government getting on with the job of fulfilling its election commitments in school education?

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

I am delighted to get a question from the member for Deakin about the government keeping its commitments in school education. I have to say that recently I had the opportunity to announce the Teacher Education Ministerial Advisory Group.

It completed one of the pillars that the government took to the election about how we are going to address student outcomes at our schools, putting students first. We had already announced a review of the national curriculum to have the most robust curriculum possible. We have already announced a $70 million fund because we want to expand independent public schools. We know that the more autonomy that a school has, the better the results for students and the higher the expectations for students, which means that we are putting students first. Then I announced the Teacher Education Ministerial Advisory Group, because all of the research, whether it is our own local research or whether it is the OECD PISA study, shows that in Australia, more than any other OECD country, the most important factor that affects a student's outcome is the quality of the teachers. That report found that eight out of 10 influences on a student's results will be the classroom to which they are allocated in a school—not their social background and not the curriculum but the classrooms to which they are allocated in a school. So we are focusing on the issues that matter in education: more autonomy for schools; a better curriculum for schools; higher teacher quality in schools.

Ms MacTiernan interjecting—

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Perth will desist!

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

Support comes from the strangest places. Some members of the House might remember my old sparring partner, Julia Gillard. She was the Minister for Education when I was the shadow minister for education, and then she was the Prime Minister pretending to be the 'education prime minister', and I was the Manager of Opposition Business in the House and continued to be the shadow minister for education—

Opposition members interjecting—

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The member for Kingston and the member for Perth will desist! And the member for Moreton!

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

I used to say the same things for years and years and years—that education was not just about money but about curriculum, teacher quality and autonomy.

Ms MacTiernan interjecting—

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Perth will remove herself under standing order 94(a).

The member for Perth then left the chamber.

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

The former Prime Minister, the former Minister of Education, never said that. For six years, she always used to maintain that more money would solve every problem. And do you know what she said on 24 February, free from the shackles of government, free from the shackles of the prime ministership? At the Brookings Institute she said:

One of the things in developed countries like Australia is, actually, the amount of money going into education has been increasing but learning outcomes have not been increasing.

So support comes from the strangest of places. The former education minister, the former Prime Minister, is lining up with the new member for Perth and the government in insisting that money is not everything; it is all the other things that we are doing in education.