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

The members should listen to this answer because some of his own members have identified those priorities, as I am pointing out, with the member for Murray highlighting the declining state of educational opportunity in her rural electorate. The member for McPherson stated that it is the right of every child to receive a world-class education. Of course, the member for Bowman had already got in on the act by 'giving a Gonski', but there you go.

It is obvious that these members have had a look at the National Plan for School Improvement. All of the elements are there: tick for excellence, tick for equity, tick for teacher quality, tick for a national curriculum, tick on school leadership, tick for the fact that country schools will be properly resourced under a National Plan for School Improvement. Now that just left the member for Sturt, and we do not often get to hear the member for Sturt speaking on education in here. But he clearly laid the coalition's intention on education: to stick to a broken funding system that is failing too many kids. His speech made it clear that for every parent in a small, one school regional town, or a low-income family who do not have any choice in the school they send their child to, the opposition and the member for Sturt believe that they should be having a model that leaves kids behind. We will deliver a model that supports kids for education. (Time expired)

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