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

I will just finish with this one sentence and then we will move to other members—having allowed the shadow minister to do the same. With more than $5 billion invested in higher education infrastructure, vocational education and training infrastructure, I say this to the members opposite: it is very interesting to me that when called on to detail an education policy all they can do is criticise. I have not heard an education policy about early learning. I have not heard an education policy about school education. I have not heard an education policy about investing in important things like overcoming disadvantage in schools. I have not heard a substantive response to the Bradley reforms. This is the problem for the opposition—all they do is moan and complain but they are a policy-free zone. And the shadow minister for education more so than most.

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