Matt Thistlethwaite (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am pleased to speak on this motion which has no basis whatsoever in fact—another wonderful example from the Orwellian group of motion writing within the Liberal Party. I visit many schools throughout New South Wales—it is one of the great pleasures that you have as a senator—and I find that you can always tell a good school about 10 minutes after you walk into one. Some of our schools are struggling, particularly some of those public schools in rural and regional areas. That is reflected in the objective international comparison of performance of our students. The Programme for International Student Assessment is based on an annual testing which looks at the rankings of educational systems within the world. Australia has been declining relative to other countries in terms of our international rankings. That decline began under the Howard government, under the previous Liberal government. In 2003, Australia ranked fourth when it came to reading literacy and we ranked eighth when it came to mathematics. In 2006, in reading literacy we had dropped to seventh place, and we had dropped out of the top 10 when it came to mathematics. In 2009, the decline continued. We fell to ninth when it came to reading literacy and 15th when it came to mathematics.

We have a problem in our education system, and the problem is declining standards. Objectively, that is the issue we have to deal with as a nation. Why is it that we are declining? All of the studies show us that other nations are investing more in education, more per income in education. We need to heed those results, particularly what many of our Asian competitors are doing when it comes to funding education. There is a need for reform and Labor is delivering that reform. We have invested $243 million in improving national literacy and numeracy through partnerships with the state governments. We have introduced a national curriculum so that we have a set of standards across Australia to assess the performance of our students. We have invested $2.5 billion in Smarter Schools National Partnerships. We introduced the My School website to ensure that parents had objective information about schools in their local areas and, importantly, that the government had information regarding the performance of schools and which areas needed additional funding. We have introduced computers into schools—950,000 throughout Australia, and national partnerships for improving teacher quality.

But, most importantly, on the issue of funding and addressing this problem of declining standards, we consulted with the experts. We set up an enquiry chaired by Professor Gonski, to have a look at these issues. It included the likes of educational expert, Ken Boston, and Kathryn Greiner. They went around the country talking to principals, experts, academics, teachers and parents, working out the best way to improve results in educational standards in our country. They came up with a report. It is commonly referred to as the Gonski recommendations.

What are we to do as the government? Are we to ignore those recommendations; ignore all that work that has been undertaken by the experts and which international comparisons tell us is the basis of Australia's failing performance? We would be a government that is ignorant if we failed to heed those recommendations, but that is what the opposition expects us to do. The government is developing a new funding model so that no school will lose one cent of funding and we will see better results throughout the country. That includes base funding with loadings for disadvantage, for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students, for disability and for low socioeconomic areas. We are delivering this plan. We have a plan to improve results, to stop the rot that began under the Howard government.

But the opposition are doing what conservative governments do. They do not want the system to change. The opposition education spokesman, Mr Christopher Pyne, has said that the current system is adequate. They keep saying that we are throwing money at the problem. But their argument is deficient because, if money were not the issue, why do parents pay a lot, particularly those who send their kids to private selective schools? Why do they pay that extra money? They pay that extra money because they want their kids to get a better education, because they know if they make that investment with that extra money their kids will have a better opportunity at a better education. So their argument about throwing money at the issue is deficient. We have seen what Liberal governments do when it comes to education. They cut services and they cut funding. In New South Wales, in my state, they have cut $1.7 billion from the education budget, and the effects of that are beginning to be felt throughout schools in my state.

Senator Kroger mentioned the Building the Education Revolution. This is one of the programs that I am most proud of as a member of this government—$16 billion invested in new facilities throughout this country. I often tell the story of East Maitland Public School. I had the great fortune of opening their new BER facilities last year. This school received $2 million from the Gillard government to build two new special-needs classrooms. They have a wonderful principal at that school, Sheree O'Brien—