Marise Payne (NSW, Liberal Party, Minister for Human Services) Share this | Hansard source

As I was about to say in finishing my earlier answer, which was relevant to the equity question that the senator asked before, Australia's 12 per cent of the overall variation in student performance compared to the OECD average of 15 per cent.

In relation to the model that will be implemented by the government, the minister, the Prime Minister and I in my capacity representing the minister in this chamber have indicated that we will be implementing the model as agreed by the previous government. I have said it many times in the past week. The PISA report, though, has also found, and the government has been at great pains to discuss this with the states and territories in the last 11 weeks via the ministers' discussions, that teacher quality is critically important in Australia in determining education performance. For Australian students it matters more which class they are allocated to than which school they attend. (Time expired)