House of Representatives

Monday, 3 June 2013 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 29
adaptability and innovation that will be the currency
we will need to prosper in the coming century. All
those things start with education, and that is why the
bill we are debating today is so important. It is
important because it says to the community that this
government gets it. We understand that our education
system is not meeting the needs of today's students, let
alone the generations that will be making their way in
the world beyond this time of mining-generated
wealth.
Not one of us can afford to ignore the results of
international tests and comparisons that show Australia
is failing to keep up with the educational achievements
of our neighbours and competitors.
Over the past decade the PISA exams—the Program
of International Student Assessment—coordinated by
the OECD has shown an alarming drop in the
comparative performance of Australian students. For
example, in that period Australian students have fallen
from second to seventh in reading and from fifth to
13th in maths. Another similar statistic that has been
quoted often in this debate is that in test results
released at the end of last year it was shown that
Australian year-4 students were significantly
outperformed in reading literacy by 21 countries out of
the 45 that took part in the testing.
This government came to office with education as
one of its key priorities and we have backed that up
with investments to improve teaching and learning, as
well as significant upgrading of school infrastructure.
The international ranking results I have just quoted,
however, demand an even greater national effort aimed
at giving Australian students the education they need to
secure their place in the world. The question is: what
should that greater effort look like? This government
understands that for each student to truly get what he
or she needs from education and to truly realise their
potential we need to do more than simply add more
funding to the existing system to do more of what it
currently does. Instead, we need a new funding
framework built on a set of explicit principles and
goals so that we can be sure of getting the maximum
value for every extra dollar spent on education.
The Australian Education Bill 2012 lays out the
legislative framework which will deliver more funding
and resources to every school as part of the
implementation of the National Plan for School
Improvement, also enshrined within this bill. The
purpose of this bill is made very clear in its preamble
and it is something I fully subscribe to and
wholeheartedly support:
All students in all schools are entitled to an excellent
education, allowing each student to reach his or her full
potential so that he or she can succeed and contribute fully to
his or her community, now and in the future.
CHAMBER
The quality of a student’s education should not be limited by
where the student lives, the income of his or her family, the
school he or she attends, or his or her personal
circumstances.
The quality of education should not be limited by a school’s
location, particularly those schools in regional Australia.
… … …
… future arrangements will be based on the needs of
Australian schools and school students, and on evidence of
how to provide an excellent education for school students.
These arrangements will build on successful reforms to date.
These are all important statements of the value this
government and, one would hope, this parliament
places on education and its role in the lives of
individual Australians and the prospects of our nation.
They should not, however, come as a surprise to
anyone because the words in this bill actually reflect
the substance of Labor's education policy and programs
since we came to office in 2007. In her second reading
speech when this bill was introduced to the parliament
the Prime Minister outlined the path we have been on,
step by step putting in place the foundations for this
significant and necessary reform of school education.
We knew when we came to power in 2007 that
reform had to be built on evidence of what is
happening in schools right now—which students go to
which schools; what are the indicators of success or
disadvantage within a school population; what is a
school contributing to the educational performance of
its students and how does that compare to other
schools; and, which schools are successful in meeting
the needs of their students and getting the best out of
them? We could not answer those questions when we
first came to government in 2007. So we set about the
task of answering those questions and building an
education system for the future. My School was
developed to gather the information that could answer
those questions and guide appropriate responses.
Over the same period our government has made
massive investments in delivering extra resources into
schools through national partnerships with states and
other schooling systems. Schools put those resources to
work in new approaches and programs to address poor
literacy and numeracy, to lift the quality of teaching
and to overcome disadvantage experienced by low-
SES students. Using the data from My School and
other measures we have worked to identify what works
in schools. We can identify the elements of success and
where more support is needed if those results are to be
achieved in each and every school.
The Gonski review has confirmed that more support,
more funding, is needed if we are to replicate the lift in
standards and educational results seen in those
National Partnership schools around the country. The
Gonski review went further in recommending
important new characteristics of school funding. Those
characteristics are central to the fundamental reform of