Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Education and Training) Share this | Hansard source

Yes, I am aware of alternative policies when it comes to spending and taxing, but I am not aware of any alternative policies when it comes to actual quality reforms in our schools.

The Turnbull government has a commitment to make sure we actually drive reform in our schools that ensures better identification of young children in terms of their reading capacity and higher ambition in terms of the study of maths and science at year 12, and that we actually drive reform to keep our best, most able and most capable teachers in our schools. These are the types of reforms we are committed to.

Those opposite only want to talk about how much they are going to spend! They are only interested in the amount of money being thrown around. In the nearly 2½ thousand words they have uttered—Mr Shorten, Ms Ellis and others—since yesterday's announcement, they have talked about funding, spending money and dollars around 25 times: once every 100 words. And yet they have mentioned the word 'quality' just once! Just once! Quality is what matters in our schools, and real reforms will drive quality outcomes. (Time expired)