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

This is an important reform which will be available to parents and to those who care about education from the start of next year. These transparency measures will relate to our national partnerships for disadvantaged schools, schools that are underachieving; to our national partnerships on teacher quality, programs to bring the best teachers to the schools that need them the most and to pay them more for being in those schools; and to our program to ensure literacy and numeracy efforts are focused where they are needed the most.

Unfortunately, the federal Liberal Party as a matter of policy is silent on all of these things and says absolutely nothing about them—not one policy, not one plan. The only stated view of the Liberal Party about these matters is Barry O’Farrell’s view in New South Wales, and he has legislated to prevent parents in New South Wales getting access to this information through their daily newspapers. So, courtesy of the Liberal Party and Barry O’Farrell, this information, which is transparently available online, will not be available to New South Wales parents or citizens in the pages of their daily newspapers. I think that is a disgrace, and what is more disgraceful than that is that the federal Liberal Party is absolutely silent about it.

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