Joe Ludwig (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Manager of Government Business in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

The government is not supporting this motion as it is not a sensible motion. The motion calls for the public release of the national protocols for school reporting. The principles and protocols for reporting on schools in Australia were endorsed by education ministers in June this year and published on the ministerial council website. The protocols are already published and publicly available, and can be found at the website. I will not go to the address for the protocols but it is on the ministerial council’s website.

These protocols do not need to be made a legislative instrument. The protocols have been endorsed by and agreed to at the ministerial council and, as the Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority reports to the ministerial council, it is already bound by those protocols without the need for further legislative action. With regard to review of the testing and reporting regime, the publication of school-level information is a major reform and a step forward in the transparency and accountability of the Australian education system and will be closely monitored and subject to ongoing evaluation. I can make that website available to the Greens subsequent to this.