Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

who chimes in right on cue—was that he was going to fight on. He was going to fight on because he wanted to delete from the government’s bill the reference to the national curriculum. The bill has been delivered in whole. It delivers $28 billion of funds to non-government schools, it delivers the new transparency measures we promised in the form we promised them and it delivers our commitment to the national curriculum. This has been achieved because the shadow minister for education today engaged in what must go down as one of the most humiliating backflips in Australian politics. He was fighting on as late as this morning and then went into the Senate and performed this humiliating backflip. Instead of just having the fortitude to go out publicly and say, ‘Yes, I did backflip; I did change my mind,’ the shadow minister for education has been trying to pretend to all the world that apparently a statement about curriculum was made today in the Senate that had never been made before. This simply is not true.

Can I indicate to the House on how many occasions in the past—and this is not an exhaustive list—the government has given commitments to schools that offer alternative curriculums, like Steiner schools and Montessori schools, that they would be able to work with the national curriculum process and that their teaching styles were not under threat. That is something the shadow minister in his humiliation and shame is trying to pretend only happened this morning.

I take the House to an extract of my second reading speech on the Schools Assistance Bill 2008 on 21 October, and I table it; to my response to amendments moved in the House by the shadow minister raising this issue on 21 October, and I table it; and to my speech to the Curriculum Corporation on 10 November, which dealt comprehensively with these issues, and I table it. In fact, Senator Carr today in the Senate used these words in the statement that he made—a statement drawn from my speech of 10 November. Then I take the parliament to the words of the member for Bennelong, the Parliamentary Secretary for Early Childhood Education and Child Care, who on my behalf delivered the summing-up speech to the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority Bill 2008 in this place on 26 November and used the same form of words that was used by Senator Carr in the Senate today on the parliamentary record, and I table it. Then, of course, there is a transcript from me on radio in Adelaide yesterday, 1 December, which deals comprehensively with these issues, and I table it. Then there is a transcript from 2 December of an ABC Radio National breakfast interview dealing comprehensively with these issues, and I table it. Then, of course, there is a media release from me of 3 December which deals comprehensively with these issues, and I table it. Then there is my response to the Senate’s amendments in the record of parliamentary proceedings from yesterday, 3 December, which gives the same form of reassurance, and I table it. Then there is a Hansard extract from yesterday in which I gave exactly the same reassurances and used the same form of words, dated, of course, 3 December, and I table it. Then there is a transcript of my television interview on ABC2 News Breakfast this morning, where I used the same form of words and gave the same kinds of reassurances, and I table it.

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