Cory Bernardi (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

They are not vigorously defending the Rudd legacy, let me tell you that. Let us have a look at Mr Rudd's and Ms Gillard's legacy—the legacy left behind by those on the other side. Labor's performance in education can simply be described as a dismal failure. The PISA results—as the shadow minister asked about and as the minister articulated—indicate just how great their failure has been. In maths we have dropped from 15th to 19th on the PISA table; in reading we have dropped from ninth to 14th; and in science we have dropped from 10th to 16th. It is a shameful indictment on their lack of ability to deliver outcomes.

The left of the political spectrum has this belief that borrowing more money and throwing it at a problem without actually applying it in a disciplined and meaningful way is somehow going to give you a different result. It does not. Doing the same thing and expecting a different result is the definition of insanity. The PISA report found that teacher quality is absolutely important and is integral to delivering outcomes to students. Your problem is that you are not interested in the outcomes. You are more interested in 'the art of seeming' than the art of actually delivering. That is what the fundamental rejection by the Australian people of Labor's brand of politics has been about. You were all spin and no substance. You know that, Senator Furner; I can sense it. And that is why education in this country is in the state that it is in now.

What I find extraordinary is that shadow ministers cannot come in here and debate the substance, in a meaningful way, of the topic of the questions they have asked in their portfolio areas. They have to have a prewritten, pre-typed speech to deliver—with all the passion of an undertaker, I would suggest. It is an extraordinary indictment and a suggestion—