Andrew Laming (Bowman, Liberal Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

On behalf of the Standing Committee on Employment, Education and Training, I present the following report entitled Don't take it as read: Inquiry into adult literacy and its importance, together with the minutes of proceedings, including a corrigendum.

Report made a parliamentary paper in accordance with standing order 39(e).

by leave—Too many Australians leave school with language, literacy, numeracy and digital literacy skills gaps; we refer to it as LLND. It limits opportunities and life choices. This inquiry, very importantly, examined how we can be developing stronger LLND skills and overcome barriers to learning, and the ability of existing adult education programs and providers to meet that demand. Everyone in this chamber would agree that a decent start for children is one of the most important preoccupations every member should have. We know that improving adult LLND can mean employment, higher wages, personal fulfilment, and it makes the country a more prosperous and competitive place. We know individually that Australians may choose to improve their literacy and numeracy to support their own children's education or to better understand health advice, to become more involved in their communities, to be more able to access services—many of which are online—or to simply make more informed legal and financial choices. This committee found poor education was strongly correlated with poverty and geographic isolation, and there really is a need to address these factors contributing to low LLND skills across educational systems and at every stage of citizens' personal journeys.

Australia aspires, as many of us know, to a world-class education system and it is constantly under scrutiny, but we have to be honest that many children too often fall through the cracks. Children don't always speak English outside the classroom. Thousands of Indigenous children speak their own languages at home but they are often taught or assessed as if they are first-language speakers. This experience of shame and stigma that is associated with student personal failure or even for adults with low literacy acts as a barrier to reach out and seek support, engage in school or get further education and training in life.

At this point, I want to recognise the deputy chair of the committee, the member for Bendigo. This is a member who was principled, dedicated, ethical and who never took her eye off the ball through difficult periods for this committee over the past 12 months, and I owe her a debt of gratitude. She is also, quite interestingly, the co-chair originally, a decade ago, of the Parliamentary Friends of Early Education, something that I established around 2011 to recognise the visit of Professor Joe Sparling from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, who initiated the early intervention and educational interventions that have been picked up by states and territories, and the journey the federal government and this parliament took towards recognising the importance of early education in long-term life decisions and outcomes.

We know there are currently a range of accredited programs for adults but they don't always want to sign up to these courses. They're working, often, with a volunteer or attending a small class. Those sorts of things actually do make a difference if we can get these adults to stick with his programs. The committee agreed with the Productivity Commission that we do need a holistic approach to LLND. Fifteen recommendations have been made, which I don't need to go through. They are extremely useful. This is a very large report, a huge amount of work. I want to thank the secretariat, particularly Dr John White, all the members on my side of politics, the crossbenchers on this committee and the members of the opposition, who made this committee work over the last 12 months. I commend the report to the House.