Craig Kelly (Hughes, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Over the last several days I have received several emails from constituents on the issue of education. I would like to congratulate those people who wrote to me, because I share their passion for education, especially public education. I attended a public school—a public high school and public primary schools—my children attended public schools, and I have a daughter who is studying to be a teacher. Therefore I share these writers' passion and I would love to see more resources put into our education system.

Further, I am concerned that what is being peddled out in the public is nothing other than a politically inspired disinformation campaign. The coalition are not breaking any promises on their election commitments on education. We promised before the election that during this term of government we would match what the previous Labor government had proposed under the so-called Gonski funding for the next three years of this government. We are meeting that commitment not only 100 per cent; we are actually doing better than that: we are putting in an extra $1.2 billion into education. In fact this government, this parliament, which is a Liberal coalition government, will be spending more money on education than any other government since Federation.

We all know government operates over a forward estimates period, which is four years. Any political party that makes promises about spending outside those four years, trying to make a promise not what the next government would do but the one after when they have no idea about where that funding will come from, is simply being disingenuous at best. That is what the current opposition is doing. I note the opposition spokesman for education is in the chamber and I noticed the other day she could not even commit to what Labor would propose after the next election. During this period, the coalition is meeting its commitments on education spending in full.

Also, while on education, I would like to take this opportunity to say that I agree with the New South Wales education minister that the My School website should be scrapped and those funds should be put into boosting the skills of our teachers. However, I do not agree with the reason given that it is stressful for our students. Life is stressful. Personal relationships, business and sport are stressful. Learning to cope with stress is part of the education that we need to give our students, and we should not be taking away a test, because it is apparently stressful. We need to teach our kids creativity, innovation, critical thinking and entrepreneurship—they should be priorities at school.