Chris Bowen (McMahon, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

Of all the areas where the Prime Minister's rhetoric falls short of the reality of his delivery, education is surely foremost amongst them. This Prime Minister, there is no doubt, talks the good talk. This Prime Minister is good at the rhetoric. This Prime Minister is good at the spin. He waxes about the importance of innovation and about the importance of education for our future. He says nice things. He tells us—he even lectures us—that there has never been a more exciting time to be an Australian. But the reality is that this Prime Minister, who has the responsibility for preparing for the future of our economy, is more than happy to send Australian young people into this rapidly changing world without the skills they deserve, without the investment they need. This Prime Minister is more than happy to keep the education funding policies he inherited from his predecessor. This Prime Minister is more than happy to say to Australia's young people, 'We will not invest more in you in this rapidly changing world.'

He tells us 'there has never been a more exciting time to be an Australian'. That was his quote. I want to share with the House a couple of other quotes. They are not from him. They are a touch longer, I apologise to the House. They are longer, but they are not glib; they are important. One is from a very good recent book called The Second Machine Age by two authors, Brynjolfsson and McAfee. They say this:

Technological progress is going to leave behind some people … as it races ahead. … there's never been a better time to be a worker with special skills or the right education, because these people can use technology to create and capture value. However, there's never been a worse time to be a worker with 'ordinary' skills and abilities to offer, because computers, robots and other digital technologies are acquiring these skills and abilities at an extraordinary rate.

There has never been a worse time not to have the investment in the education you need. The Prime Minister might want to consider that point. It is not about glib words. It is not about slogans. It is about investment in the future, and the Prime Minister is more than happy to let it happen.

Nouriel Roubini, one of the world's finest economists, said this, putting it slightly more concisely:

Software innovation, together with 3D printing technologies, will open the door to those workers who are educated enough to participate; for everyone else, however, it may feel as though the revolution is happening elsewhere.

In this world there will be winners and losers, and this Prime Minister is prepared—he is more than happy—to see so many young Australians be the losers, because he is not prepared to take the decision to invest in them. He inherited an education policy which he now presides over—it is his policy—which sees $3.2 million cut from every Australian school, the equivalent of sacking one in seven teachers, less individual support for students, fewer subject choices and literacy and numeracy projects cut. I know I have had school principals from my electorate come to see me to talk about the good things they have started to do with their improved funding already. Every honourable member will have had the same. But those programs will be cut unless the money flows. Those early stage projects that are just making a difference—bringing technology into schools, lifting up people who are the most disadvantaged—will be cut on this Prime Minister's watch, and no amount of words, no rhetoric from him will change that. No slogans from him will help those people who will have their projects cut. This is the policy which he personally presides over.

Let us be very clear: this is a matter of fairness, this is a matter of social justice. Better and fairer education funding is what drives all of us on this side of the House, and it is what brought many of us into politics. It is not just about fairness though; it is about very important economic policy preparing Australia for the future, because we know we are not doing well enough. We know that, in Australia, disadvantaged students are up to 3 years behind other students in educational outcomes. That is not good enough. We know that, in Australia, rural and regional students are up to 12 months behind students in metropolitan areas. That is not fair. That is not good enough, and we are prepared to do something about it, even if those members opposite who represent rural and regional areas are not. We know that the range between the lowest and highest mathematical literacy scores in Australia is higher than the OECD average, and that is not good enough. That is not acceptable to us, it should not be acceptable to any member of this House, and it should certainly not be acceptable to this Prime Minister who talks the talk but is not prepared to do anything about it.

We know that, in Australia, the difference in educational outcomes between those in the lowest quintile of socioeconomic status and the highest is 2½ years. That is just not on in Australia. It is not fair, it is not right and it is not acceptable, and it is very poor for our future, because those people who do not come from the richest families, who do not have the wealthiest backgrounds have a lot to contribute to this nation. They are no less intelligent than any other Australian. They do not have one bit less to offer Australia. They can play just as much of a role in our economic future as any other Australian. But all they need is a bit of investment—the same investment that every other Australian gets. They deserve nothing less.

There is a great myth, a great fallacy—we heard it from this Prime Minister yet again today. His education minister has been saying it right across the country: more money into education does not make a difference and investment does not make a difference. That is a fallacy. That is just not right, and we are not going to cop that for a second. Tell that to the Australian mums and dads who are scrimping and scraping to put more money into their kids' education. Tell them that more money does not make a difference. You tell that to the teachers in rural Australia, in Western Sydney, in Western Melbourne and right across the country who are trying to find more resources for their classrooms, who are holding fetes and cake stalls. You tell them that more money does not make a difference to the education they can provide to their students. That is an insult from this Prime Minister and this education minister, and it is a convenient mistruth that they peddle to justify their callous disregard for better education funding in Australia.

Our 'Your Child. Our Future' policy is very important economic policy for our future. We know that, according to the OECD, in 2000 only one country outperformed Australia in reading and maths, and in 2006 only two countries outperformed us in science. Today 16 countries are outperforming us in maths, nine in reading and seven in science. We are falling behind! We are going backwards. This government is presiding over a decline in investment which will see us do worse—and they tell us money does not matter! Money is not the only thing that matters—other things matter as well—but the Prime Minister should dare not pretend that money does not matter when it comes to investment in education.

We know that 75 per cent of the fastest-growing occupations in Australia today require science, technology, engineering and maths. We have policies to deal with that; the Leader of the Opposition announced them last year. We were talking about this when the now Prime Minister was still defending his predecessor's callous lack of regard for science, technology, engineering and maths. The Prime Minister should acknowledge that this is a necessary investment. He should not lecture Australians about how there has never been a more exciting time to be an Australian, but acknowledge that the policies he is presiding over will see us get this wrong. He should acknowledge that the policies he is presiding over will continue to see us go backwards.

Again, the OECD has said this:

… the quality of schooling in a country is a powerful predictor of the wealth that countries will produce in the long run.

It is pretty obvious: if you invest in education now, you create wealth into the future. They have also said that, if we equip all Australian high school students with the basic skills they need, by 2030 we could add $44 billion to the size of our economy. The government, the Prime Minister and the Treasurer say we cannot afford this. But we say we cannot afford not to invest in education. They see cost; we see investment.

We have had to make difficult decisions to make room in the budget to fund this. We have developed $70 billion worth of savings over the decade to fund this and other measures,. But so we should, because this has to be an urgent national priority. We will not accept the myth that the Prime Minister perpetuates: that money does not count in education. I wanted to see what the Prime Minister thought of education. I read the recent biography on him; I thought that maybe he would said something about education in it. I found one quote. It said this: 'Most federal politicians are incredibly uneducated. The ALP is much better educated these days than the Liberals.'

He said that before he joined the Liberal Party. We accept the compliment. His people skills are gathering votes in the Liberal party room! But I will tell you what we do know: we do know that investment counts in education. We do know that, if you take money out of our education system, Australia's young people will be the losers. We do know that this is happening under this Prime Minister's watch, and we do know that we will not stand for it. We will fix it on coming to office, even if this Prime Minister refuses to.

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