Christopher Back (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

We went up to China and spoke to people in the primary, secondary and tertiary education sectors. When you examine closely the performance of those who are excellent in their delivery of education services you see that it is not just money. It is not just a question of throwing extra dollars. It is a question of parental engagement, it is a question of motivation of children and it is a question of teachers in front of children who themselves are qualified in the discipline that they are teaching, and that they have adequate resources to actually undertake that teaching. Do we know that these children and their teachers must be literate and they must be numerate before those children are going to learn? That is where the incentives are and that is where the needs lie. Just throwing money as a solution never works, as we know. It did not work in the Gillard memorial halls, as we know, and it certainly will not work if—well, Labor do not have the $20 billion now that they thought they had because it went up in smoke last night!

What we need to focus on is just where the coalition is taking education in this country. In the few moments left available to me I will just refer the Senate to Dr Jennifer Buckingham from the Centre for Independent Studies. She has praised the work that Senator Birmingham is leading in early phonics checking. Children who are deaf cannot learn: if you cannot hear you cannot learn. Only in the last few days, the Independent Schools Council of Australia—Ms Collette Colman—welcomed the coalition's plan. She said it ensured the ongoing affordability and sustainability of independent schools. And, of course, the National Catholic Education Commission executive director said:

… future funding that reflects real costs for schools.

The cost of educating a child in a Catholic school is 10 per cent less than in a government school. Where is the difference in that performance? It is not money, it is quality.