Kim Carr (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research) Share this | Hansard source

I understand that there will be additional amendments moved. I will just indicate the strength of our view on this issue to Senator Mason. Essentially, as far as the government is concerned, the position that has been put by Family First and the coalition is unacceptable. We are insisting that the bill be proceeded with on the basis on which the House of Representatives has insisted—that the national curriculum be an integral part of that bill and not be divided from it. We do so on the basis that every Australian child deserves the best education we can deliver and every Australian child deserves a decent chance in life, regardless of what their postcode is, what their background is or how their parents earn a living.

Every Australian child deserves access to the skills and knowledge that they will need as they grow and take their place in the world. That is why the government is proposing to invest $58 billion in school education over five years. That includes new funding for national partnerships on quality teaching, on literacy, on numeracy and on low socioeconomic status schools. This is an increase of some 29 per cent on the previous five years. It is precisely because we are serious about quality education that we are developing a national curriculum.

This is not an optional extra. It is not a political plaything. It is the key to creating a world-class education system that produces the outcome that our children deserve. That is why we went to the last election promising to do precisely that. That is why we started to work on the delivery of this promise as soon as we assumed office and it is why we established the national curriculum board and ensured that it included representatives from all school systems, including Catholic and independent schools. We are consulting every step of the way, with curriculum experts, with teachers in both government and non-government sectors, with specialist associations and with the community. We have established this process because we believe the national curriculum should be developed by experts and not by politicians. We want everyone to be involved.

The national curriculum will detail the content and the achievable standards all young Australians in our education system should have access to. It will make the entire school system, government and non-government sectors, more transparent and accountable. It will enable us to give all young Australians the best possible preparation for the challenges and opportunities of their century. The national curriculum will not mandate particular classroom practices. It will give schools and teachers plenty of room for innovation and creativity. It will allow them to use their own professional judgement about how to develop and deliver learning programs and the sequence in which that material is covered. Schools and teachers will continue to make their own decisions about how best to reflect their unique circumstances and philosophies in the curriculum.

They will still be free to take advantage of teachers’ specialist knowledge and to pursue students’ special interests. The national curriculum will be flexible enough to accommodate all schools, including Montessori and Steiner schools, preparing children for the International Baccalaureate, the University of Cambridge International Examination and programs of that quality. We will ask the national curriculum board to advise on the best way of acknowledging the curriculum these schools offer.

Only yesterday the Montessori Australia Foundation confirmed its support for the introduction of a national curriculum. The chair of the foundation, Christine Harrison, said:

We are confident that Montessori schools will be able to offer the Montessori curriculum under the framework of the new national curriculum.

That confidence is well founded. Ms Harrison also called on the Senate to pass the bill. She is not alone. Yesterday we heard from Bill Daniels, Executive Director of the Independent Schools Council of Australia. He had this to say:

The Independent Schools Council of Australia has right from the start backed the government on its quadrennium funding legislation.

Mr Daniels went on:

This is legislation that was flagged pre-election. This is the Government doing exactly what it said it would do.

On the national curriculum, Mr Daniels said, ‘We are part of the national curriculum development process. We are comfortable with the role we have in the development of the national curriculum.’ We also heard yesterday from Dr Bill Griffiths, Chief Executive Officer of the National Catholic Education Commission. He was equally forthright. He reminded us:

The National Catholic Education Commission is comfortable with the process underway to develop the national curriculum.

Dr Griffiths went on, ‘We’ve been involved in that process from the very beginning and have been appreciative of the way in which our contribution has been received and the tenor and nature of the debate at that professional level.’ Mr Daniels and Dr Griffiths also agree on another critical point. They agree that it is absolutely essential to get this legislation passed before the end of the year. They agree that we have to give schools and parents the certainty and the funding stability that they need from 1 January next year. Everyone seems to understand that, except the coalition senators here. Everyone seems to understand that fundamental principle of the way in which our education system actually operates.

The opposition has the same problem with the national curriculum that it has with a number of other matters. It simply cannot make up its mind. The Liberal Party says that it is in favour of the national curriculum, but it is absolutely opposed to the legislation that we require to actually make it happen. It is clear that the Liberal Party is prepared to say and do anything for a headline. The Liberal Party has backed a national approach to schooling many times in the past.

In June 2003 the former Minister for Education, Science and Training, Brendan Nelson, said he wanted to ‘drive Australia’s eight different educational jurisdictions to one education system’. In June 2004, even John Howard said he would make school funding conditional—I emphasise ‘conditional’—on greater national consistency in curriculum and testing standards. In February 2007, another education minister, Julie Bishop, said, ‘I am focusing on higher standards through greater national consistency.’ And of course we all know that consistency is a matter of deep expertise in the Liberal Party. She said, ‘If I can’t get cooperation on a national curriculum I will tie funding to it.’ That was the position of the Liberal Party just last year. Now they have abandoned that long-held position in pursuit of a wacky right-wing agenda that even most Liberals would repudiate.

For 12 years, the Liberals have made noises about a national curriculum, but they have failed to deliver. Now they are holding Australian schools to ransom. They are jeopardising the funding for thousands of schools and millions of students. They are putting $28 billion in funding at risk, and it appears that they could not care less. Those opposite say that they care about Australian jobs. Obviously they do not care about the jobs of teachers, administrators and all the other staff in non-government schools. Now those schools are staring down the barrel of not getting their money by 1 January. We have an opposition here that is holding the gun to their heads. Yesterday, the member for Sturt—who humiliates himself by coming to this chamber to try to stand over his senators—said, ‘We take our sweet time on it.’