Peter Garrett (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Minister for School Education, Early Childhood and Youth) Share this | Hansard source

The fact is that the shadow opposition spokesman and the opposition leader chose to absent themselves from the House this morning when this bill was introduced. No more needs to be said.

We outlined, in this bill, a fairer funding model based on the needs of every student, with additional support for those students who need extra support—a new national plan for school improvement, with additional funding reforms tied to the investment itself. That is how we make sure that every student is given the opportunity for an excellent education, and it is how we make sure that every student gets the education they need for the high-skills, high-wages jobs of the future. That is how we keep our economy strong. This is a true Labor reform.

I am asked about alternative policies. Under Mr Abbott and Mr Pyne, education program after education program has been placed on the chopping block. Look at what they have said about the level of support for public schools and injustice—the argument that schools should have larger class sizes, that My School should be gutted, that one in seven teachers, or around 43,000 teachers, should be sacked, and that goals for Australia to be in the top five performing nations are 'mad'. At the end of the day, they are sticking to a broken funding system that would see Australian schools as much as $2 billion worse off over four years.

For a preview of what is on offer from the coalition, just look at look at Liberal-National coalitions in the other states: savage cuts to TAFE in Victoria, damaging cuts to youth services in Victoria, and the deepest cuts to education that we have ever seen in New South Wales. When we introduce an Australian Education Bill into the parliament we do it because, on this side of the House, we stand for making sure that every single student in Australia gets the best education they can. That is the way of the future.

See this speech in context