House debates

Monday, 25 May 2015

Questions without Notice

Education

2:48 pm

Photo of Ken WyattKen Wyatt (Hasluck, Liberal Party) Share this | | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Education and Training. Will the minister inform the House of the importance of developing numeracy skills to equip our young people to perform well in the modern world? Minister, are there any alternative views?

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

I am sorry to inform the member for Hasluck that, despite increasing spending on school education in the last 10 years in this country by 40 per cent, our results in numeracy have declined in both relative and absolute terms. But the good news is that this government has a plan to fix it, unlike the opposition. Through our Students First policy initiatives we are going to declutter the national curriculum to give teachers more time to teach maths. We are going to reform teacher training in order to have more of an emphasis on mathematics and only graduate specialists in maths, science and languages in primary school teachers. We are going to increase school autonomy to give principals the opportunity to get the teachers they need rather than the teachers they are sent.

The Leader of the Opposition, on the other hand, wants to revive a policy to give HECS discounts for students doing maths and science at universities—exactly the same—

Photo of Graham PerrettGraham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | | Hansard source

Hear, hear!

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

'Hear, hear!' the poor old hapless member for Moreton calls out—the exact same policy that Labor themselves abolished in 2011-12, with the then Minister for Higher Education, Chris Evans, saying that students are predominantly motivated not by price but by their interests, abilities and career preferences. He was exactly right. Labor abolished the exact same policy that the Leader of the Opposition wants to bring back, because it was not working but was costing a tremendous amount of money. The policy was so badly handled in the Leader of the Opposition's address in reply about the budget that on the night of the budget response he said it would cost $353 million and by the next morning it was $45 million. So, on May 15 it was $353 million, the next morning it was $45 million and by the afternoon it was $1.4 billion. He had more numbers than the Eurovision Song Contest! I could just imagine Bill there with a microphone falling down from the ceiling and a long cord, singing a few numbers about his mathematical prowess—353 million, 45 million and 1.4 billion, in the space of less than 24 hours. No wonder focus groups say this man has no substance. When the government had the policy costed, it was $2.25 billion. The Leader of the Opposition has no credibility when it comes to education policy. Is it any wonder the public are not taking this man seriously?