Andrew Giles (Scullin, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Today is Public Education Day. On this side of the House, it is a day we celebrate. It is a day on which we also recommit ourselves to the fight for fairness when it comes to public education in Australia. I was proud today to join the Deputy Leader of the Opposition and so many of my Labor colleagues in meeting with an important delegation organised by Correna Haythorpe and the AEU—a delegation of teachers, principals and others involved in school communities to share our stories about what public education has meant for Australia and to share our resolve to fight for public education in Australia.

It is a day of celebration, but it is also a day of frustration, because in the House at the moment we have legislation that represents a retreat, an abandonment, by the Australian government of national responsibility for public education—a trashing of a commitment to a student resource standard which would support every child in every school to get the education they deserve and to be the pathway to a decent life. I stand here to acknowledge the work of all those in that delegation, and it is great to see so many of them here, and to commit myself, as the Leader of the Opposition did so memorably this morning, to fight for the full Gonski—to put $22 billion into much-needed education, with a particular focus on supporting our great public schools. (Time expired)