Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Trade) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Wong seems to completely ignore the reality that the Commonwealth government doesn't run a single school in the country. We don't run a single school in the country. What we do is try to actually drag recalcitrant states and territories, as they are at times, kicking and screaming to deliver reform faster and better and to apply the types of measures that are necessary: to declutter the curriculum, to get back to basics around maths, English and reading skills, and to deliver in terms of the modern techniques that need to be applied around properly measuring and assessing learning progressions, making sure that we look at guaranteeing that each student in the classroom is learning effectively and that they are growing in each year of their learning and that we are actually addressing these problems, which have been evident for many years. We commissioned the research to deliver the reforms and we want to hold the states and territories accountable to make those reforms. (Time expired)