Peter Garrett (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Minister for School Education, Early Childhood and Youth) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Banks for his question. He has seen $83,277 million worth of project investment in his electorate. There have been over 100 projects improving schools right around the electorate of Banks because on this side of the House we do understand how important education is to a child's future, for the parents hopes for their child and also of course to the economy. On Tuesday, we had the extraordinary situation where the leader of opposition business, who is also the shadow minister for education, tried to stop the debate on the Australian Education Bill.

It is an important bill that will provide the directions for the National Plan for School Improvement, locking in important reforms, higher teacher standards and giving every student quality learning opportunities and more power in the hands of school leaders. It was not surprising, I guess, that the member for Sturt wanted to lock out that debate given the decade of neglect that we had from those opposite on education: an unfair funding model, flagpoles instead of libraries, history wars instead of a national curriculum—who could forget that episode. He was possibly even concerned about the contributions from members on his own side, because actually some opposition members did talk about education reform. The member for Aston offered his thoughts on improved education outcomes, saying, 'Improve teacher training and lift teacher quality in schools, have a rigorous national curriculum, more school empowerment.' The member for Murray highlighted the current declining state—

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