Christine Milne (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the minister and would like to ask him the question: what if the states do not do as they are asked to do? You have just listed a whole range of performance objectives and so on about using GST money, using some of their own resources, using special purpose grants, blah blah blah, but what if they do not? What is the penalty the Commonwealth will apply to the states if they do not do it?

My second point is that I am so tired of hearing in this place time and time again the notional view that schools are somehow withholding information from parents. Let me tell you, from the point of view of a school, that schools are desperate for parents to take an interest in the school. It is not actually the other way around. Schools are desperate for parents and communities to get involved and to support them in every which way, from reading classes through to sports days to camps to everything. The problem schools have is that they have not only a small number of parents who are vitally interested and want to be involved but also a large number of parents who are not. Frequently, on parent/teacher nights, it is the parents of the students who you have not asked to see who want to come along and talk to you, because they are interested and their children are doing well. It is the parents of the students you have asked to see who do not come.

Let’s not keep accusing schools, Senator Carr. Please stop accusing schools of being some little closed shop that is trying to keep the community out and implying that we are somehow forcing the doors open for some sort of accountability. I can tell you that in the public system—and I am sure it is the same in the non-government system—schools are falling over themselves to involve parents and the community in the school. That is why I made the remarks I did in the second reading debate about improving educational outcomes. It is about getting the whole of society to value education more, to want to support schools more and to appreciate teachers more. It is a mindset that has developed: ‘Teachers are bad. Schools are holding out on parents. Parents cannot find out.’ I do not know of a single school where parents cannot find things out if they go to the school and get involved with positive interaction. Can we please stop this notional view that there is some sort of secret society going on in schools? We have the problem of a high level of community disengagement with their schools, and that is why they very often do not understand the results or the reports that are sent home. They have not had that level of engagement. I think it is great that we can improve that. I hope we can improve that. I would be happy to improve that, but let’s actually value what schools are doing and stop this accusatory nonsense that suddenly the community is desperate to break down the doors of schools. The doors of schools have been wide open. It is just that people have not been coming through them.