Sarah Hanson-Young (SA, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate calls on the Government to:

(a)

release the protocols for the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority’s reporting information and publication of national schools data;

(b)

amend the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority Act 2008 to provide that these protocols be made as a legislative instrument; and

(c)

after 2 years, review the impact of the testing and reporting regime on resourcing, educational outcomes and teaching workforce.

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

I seek leave to make a short statement.

Alan Ferguson (SA, Deputy-President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Leave is granted for two minutes

Joe Ludwig (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Manager of Government Business in the Senate) Share this | Link to 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.

Bob Brown (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I seek leave to make a short statement.

Alan Ferguson (SA, Deputy-President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Leave is granted for two minutes.

Bob Brown (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the minister for that information about this motion, but one of two things is happening here: either the information that this motion seeks to have released is publicly available, in which case I would have thought the government should have informed the mover, Senator Hanson-Young and/or the whips meeting that has been held in the interim; or the information is not available and the motion is very legitimate indeed. It cannot be both ways. I have not heard from the minister that the information on the release of the protocols is, in fact, complete and is on the public record. In the absence of that the motion has the requirement in it that the government proceed to release that information.

Question negatived.