Jonathon Duniam (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I will take that interjection, because Senator Polley says it was the last good government in Tasmania. Of course, there's another minister in this chamber who was part of that government, but I'd have to invite those in the gallery and anyone listening—the seven people across the country listening today—to go and check the scoreboard because, frankly, it was not a good government. It was one that left us with a mess in our state, and the last four years have been about fixing that mess.

I want to turn now to Mr David O'Byrne—the Hon. David O'Byrne, because he was a minister and has apparently earned the title 'honourable'. He penned an opinion piece for the Mercury dated 31 August 2017, 'Fighting to reduce inequality is the Labor Party's main task'. About two-thirds of the way through his opinion piece, he says in relation to Tasmania:

Inequality is represented by the one in every two Tasmanians who cannot read or write properly.

He's right about that. That's right. We do have a system which has, over many, many years, failed to support young Tasmanians—to teach them the basics. Our education system has not delivered what it should've done. We've been off experimenting with all sorts of different types of curriculums and learning systems. But I find it a bit galling when Mr O'Byrne decides to pen an opinion piece of this nature, having sat in government as a minister around the cabinet table as part of a government that wanted to close 20 schools in regional communities. He signed off on that and now has the gall to write an opinion piece saying that inequality is represented by these one-in-two Tasmanians who cannot read or write properly. If that is the case, in terms of fighting inequality in the state of Tasmania, my home state, how does closing schools—particularly in regional communities, where kids have to travel further to get to the next school if that one shuts, where there aren't all the supports of a bigger community and where the older generations certainly didn't have the educational opportunities that the younger generations may have—address inequality where kids can't read and write properly? That is something that he needs to answer for.