House debates Questions without Notice

Australian History Education

Monday, 27 November 2006 House of Representatives

Ms Julie Bishop

Ms Julie Bishop Curtin, Liberal Party, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Women's Issues

3:08 pm

I thank the member for Bass for his question. I can confirm for him that recently an Australia-wide test on civics and citizenships was conducted of 20,000 Australian school students across 567 schools. I can also confirm to the member for Bass that only 23 per cent of year 10 students were able to identify a historical event that gives rise to Australia Day; in other words, 77 per cent of year 10 students were not able to state why we have a public holiday on Australia Day. They were not even able to hazard a guess. This is yet another example of the failure of state and territory governments in the running of their education systems.

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