Mike Symon (Deakin, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Education, the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations and the Minister for Social Inclusion. Which approaches to boosting teacher quality are effective and which approaches are ineffective?

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

Thank you to the member for Deakin. I know he has a deep interest in education. I welcome the fact that the Leader of the Opposition asked a question on education today, because it means that during the life of this parliament we have now seen one question on education from the shadow minister for education and one question from the Leader of the Opposition. I think that tells everyone everything they need to know about the level of interest of the Liberal Party in education. They do not care; they never did.

In office, they never acted on the question of teacher quality. We know from the research around the world that nothing matters more to the ability of a student to learn in a classroom than the quality of the teacher standing in front of them. We are determined to enter a new national partnership with our state and territory colleagues and with the Catholic and independent school systems to improve teacher quality around this nation.

When we are improving teacher quality around this nation we will draw on the best learning across the world. In particular, we are drawing on approaches from the United Kingdom and the United States, through the Teach First and Teach for America programs, which have brought some of the best and brightest graduates in those countries into teaching. Whilst we have some great teachers in this country, I do not think any Australian today could say as a standard that the best and brightest graduates in our universities today aspire to go teaching. In part I suspect that is because for more than the last decade the Howard government talked teaching down.

We want to make sure that the best teachers are recognised and rewarded. We want to make sure that the best teachers stay at the front of Australian classrooms, that their accomplishments are recognized and that they know they are valued by the Australian community.

Brendan Nelson (Bradfield, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Dr Nelson interjecting

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

I am asked what approaches are effective and what approaches are ineffective. Let me remind the House of the ineffective approaches of the former government. What did they do? They talked about teacher quality and did nothing. Indeed the Leader of the Opposition has been interjecting across the table, asking me, ‘Did you read my second reading speech when I was education minister?’ Well, frankly, who cares? Your second reading speech did not improve teacher quality, because you never got anything done. The last education minister of the Howard government, the current Deputy Leader of the Opposition, came up with what I suspect would make the list of one of the stupidest public policy ideas since Federation. Her idea about teacher performance pay was to correlate it with raw scores so that, if you were in an advantaged school, where kids were the easiest to teach, you would earn a fortune and, if you were in a disadvantaged school, you would miss out on the reward. She wanted to create a system which would move the best teachers to the schools where their skills were needed the least—one of the stupidest ideas ever floated in Australian public policy.

These ineffective approaches of the past have been discarded. The decade of talk and inaction is over. The Rudd Labor government is going to act on teacher quality. We are going to get something done. The fact that the Leader of the Opposition and the Deputy Leader of the Opposition got nothing done across six years should tell every Australian that the Liberal Party will never do anything about education that truly matters.

Tony Smith (Casey, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Education, Apprenticeships and Training) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Prime Minister, given that you pledged before the last election to put a computer on the desk of every upper secondary school student in Australia and now, nine months later—

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

Ms Gillard interjecting

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The Deputy Prime Minister does not have the call.

Tony Smith (Casey, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Education, Apprenticeships and Training) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I will start again. My question is to the Prime Minister. Prime Minister, you pledged before the election to put a computer on the desk of every upper secondary school student in Australia and now, nine months on, your Deputy Prime Minister has halved the promise—which she is explaining to you now—making it a computer on every second desk. Presumably, students will share. Why should people believe that you will deliver anything, when you cannot even deliver the first stage of your education revolution without breaking promises and deceiving the Australian people?

Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The government welcomes the question. The reason we welcome the question is that it goes to a core element of the fact that we have an agenda for the future of education and those opposite do not. What we said in this place and in the national debate last year, as part of that education revolution that Australia needs to boost long-term productivity growth, to boost the performance of our schools and to provide the kids of working families across the country with an opportunity to get ahead, was to make sure that we had a digital revolution in the classroom.

There are two problems with that. One of the problems is that the nation lacks a high-speed national broadband network. That is problem No. 1. I would have thought that after 12 years those opposite might have lifted their finger on this, but no, not for the likes of them. We had about 16 different broadband policies from those opposite. Not one of them actually contributed to anything much that any of us could measure. That is problem No. 1. Problem No. 2 is that, when it comes to the ability of kids to connect to the digital economy and the digital education revolution in their classroom, there is an absence of sufficient computers. What we put forward is a practical plan of action on both.

In eight months in office, we have our program advancing for the national broadband network and, as that negotiation continues with the private sector, already we have gone through the first round of the allocation of funding and of the provision of grants to schools for the purchase of computers. I am advised by the Minister for Education and Deputy Prime Minister that already we have provided grants to 896 schools across the country for 116,000 computers. Given that we have, from memory, 2,685 secondary schools in Australia and in our first six months or so in office we have reached an agreement through the good offices of the minister to provide grants to 896 schools for the provision of 116,000 computers, here is my challenge to the shadow minister opposite. I presume that for those schools which might be in or near his electorate he would like to send the cheque back. Is that right?

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

You only have two, so would you like the money to go back? Is the response from the honourable member who is interjecting that he would like the money to go back? Therefore, what I would say—

Tony Smith (Casey, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Education, Apprenticeships and Training) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I raise a point of order. The Prime Minister should clarify whether he is sticking to his pledge to put a computer on every desk, which he is—

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

That is not a point of order. The member for Casey will resume his seat. The question that was asked was in order. The Prime Minister is responding to the question. He should be heard in silence.

Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I have to say that recently I was in the electorate of the honourable member for Dawson, up in Mackay, in Queensland, and went to a school. From memory, it was a Christian Brothers school; is that right? The grant was, from memory, one of three grants which had already been provided in that electorate for a couple of non-government schools and a government school. The response from the principals concerned was: ‘Thank God we’ve got some funding support to do this. Thank God we’ve got it.’ I would challenge those opposite—

Tony Smith (Casey, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Education, Apprenticeships and Training) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Anthony Smith interjecting

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The member for Casey has asked his question.

Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

as they have led so massively with their chins on this question, to go to 896 principals across the country and ask this question: would they like to send the cheque back? Or I would challenge them, in those electorates, to then stand up and say, ‘You and this community don’t deserve to have this extra funding for computers on the desks of your secondary school students.’

What we have here is a pathetic attempt by those opposite to camouflage one thing: 12 years of inaction and a failure to use the resources which came into the country’s economy, into the public coffers of Australia, through the resources boom and to invest that in Australia’s long-term education and infrastructure needs. We are proud of our commitment on computers in schools. We are proud of our commitment to bring about a digital revolution in Australia’s schools. We are proud of our commitments for a reform program for quality education. We have an agenda for the future. You have an excuse for the past.

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Prime Minister will direct his remarks through the chair.