Catryna Bilyk (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Madam Acting Deputy President. With regard to the national curriculum, as I said, it provides a contemporary view of the world and the skills we need to find our way in it, and for our children that has to be fantastic. Over 150 schools around the country will be trialling this curriculum. After years of neglect under the previous government, the Rudd government is modernising the education system. That is the stark difference between them and us. They did nothing. They took money out of the education system, they took money out of the health system, and here are we trying to revolutionise both the education and the health systems.

We are putting computers in schools and building new school facilities and improving education outcomes for all students. Again I have to ask those opposite: why don’t you want students to have the new computers? Why don’t you want students to have new schools? Why don’t you want students to be able to enjoy the new facilities and the new buildings and the new outdoor areas?