Ms Anna Burke (Chisholm, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Acting Prime Minister. Will the Acting Prime Minister update the House on progress in delivering the government’s education revolution?

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

I thank the member for Chisholm for her question. I know she will be relieved to know, as members of the government will be relieved to know, that the Senate has passed the Schools Assistance Bill and there is now no threat to the funding of non-government schools in 2009. Members of the government may be wondering how this happened, because they would recall that we were in this parliament yesterday and the stated position of the shadow minister for education—

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Education, Apprenticeships and Training) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

You caved in!

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

who chimes in right on cue—was that he was going to fight on. He was going to fight on because he wanted to delete from the government’s bill the reference to the national curriculum. The bill has been delivered in whole. It delivers $28 billion of funds to non-government schools, it delivers the new transparency measures we promised in the form we promised them and it delivers our commitment to the national curriculum. This has been achieved because the shadow minister for education today engaged in what must go down as one of the most humiliating backflips in Australian politics. He was fighting on as late as this morning and then went into the Senate and performed this humiliating backflip. Instead of just having the fortitude to go out publicly and say, ‘Yes, I did backflip; I did change my mind,’ the shadow minister for education has been trying to pretend to all the world that apparently a statement about curriculum was made today in the Senate that had never been made before. This simply is not true.

Can I indicate to the House on how many occasions in the past—and this is not an exhaustive list—the government has given commitments to schools that offer alternative curriculums, like Steiner schools and Montessori schools, that they would be able to work with the national curriculum process and that their teaching styles were not under threat. That is something the shadow minister in his humiliation and shame is trying to pretend only happened this morning.

I take the House to an extract of my second reading speech on the Schools Assistance Bill 2008 on 21 October, and I table it; to my response to amendments moved in the House by the shadow minister raising this issue on 21 October, and I table it; and to my speech to the Curriculum Corporation on 10 November, which dealt comprehensively with these issues, and I table it. In fact, Senator Carr today in the Senate used these words in the statement that he made—a statement drawn from my speech of 10 November. Then I take the parliament to the words of the member for Bennelong, the Parliamentary Secretary for Early Childhood Education and Child Care, who on my behalf delivered the summing-up speech to the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority Bill 2008 in this place on 26 November and used the same form of words that was used by Senator Carr in the Senate today on the parliamentary record, and I table it. Then, of course, there is a transcript from me on radio in Adelaide yesterday, 1 December, which deals comprehensively with these issues, and I table it. Then there is a transcript from 2 December of an ABC Radio National breakfast interview dealing comprehensively with these issues, and I table it. Then, of course, there is a media release from me of 3 December which deals comprehensively with these issues, and I table it. Then there is my response to the Senate’s amendments in the record of parliamentary proceedings from yesterday, 3 December, which gives the same form of reassurance, and I table it. Then there is a Hansard extract from yesterday in which I gave exactly the same reassurances and used the same form of words, dated, of course, 3 December, and I table it. Then there is a transcript of my television interview on ABC2 News Breakfast this morning, where I used the same form of words and gave the same kinds of reassurances, and I table it.

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Education, Apprenticeships and Training) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It’s all about your ego, isn’t it, Julia.

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

Order! The member for Sturt!

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

The irresponsible shadow minister who yells now—

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Education, Apprenticeships and Training) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It’s all about you!

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

The member for Sturt!

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

in his humiliation and shame—

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Education, Apprenticeships and Training) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It’s all about you!

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

The member for Sturt is warned!

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

has put parents and teachers and principals in non-government schools through agony for no reason. Last night they would have watched the TV news and thought that they were not going to get funded. This morning they would have woken up to newspaper headlines that said that there was a threat to their funding. They would have listened to the radio this morning and perhaps watched breakfast TV and believed that there was a threat to their funding, all caused by the shadow minister for education because he viewed his cheap and petty politics as more important than giving a quick reassurance to these families that their school choice would be honoured and their children would be able to go to the school of their choice next year.

Well, can I say this: the shadow minister has been humiliated, but what we can say to the mums and dads, the teachers and principals and, most importantly, the children of non-government schools is that they will benefit, from 1 January next year, from $28 billion of resources delivered to them by the Rudd Labor government, worked on constructively by the Australian Greens and Senator Nick Xenophon—and fought every step of the way by the Liberal Party.