Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Hansard source

Usually after a series of questions to me, they do not ask me questions for months and months! I am very much enjoying the opportunity to be back on the very strong ground for the government of school education in this country. I find it remarkable that the Labor Party would want to be talking about this subject when they presided over the collapse of literacy and numerously rates for our students when they were in government.

In the six years between 2007 to 2013, most of the state and territory governments were Labor. In fact, I think at one point every government was Labor. Over the last 10-year period, outcomes in literacy and numeracy for Australian students have crashed not just relative to our competitor countries but in absolute terms. The House might not remember, so I will remind them, that over that period spending on schools increased by 40 per cent. Spending increased and results declined under Labor's watch. That is because Labor never focused on the basic things that parents know make a difference in schools—teacher quality, for example. The OECD says that for Australia teacher quality is the No. 1 determinant of the outcomes for Australian students. More than any other country in the OECD, it is teacher quality. So what are we doing in the Abbott government? We are focusing on reforming teacher training at universities

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