5AA Leon Byner

SUBJECTS: Gonski funding

E&OE………………………………………………………………………………………

Leon Byner: Broadly, do you agree with the determinations of the Gonski report?

Christopher Pyne: Well not really Leon. Firstly, welcome back.

Byner: Thanks.

Pyne: Secondly, in terms of the Gonski report, there are findings in it that I do not think stack up. Firstly, they say the current system of funding is broken yet the Gonski report prescription for changes is more complicated, more convoluted than the current system. It also blurs the boundaries between public and private schools and Commonwealth and State funding. It has created an expectation that the Commonwealth has $113 billion of new money over the next 12 years to put in schools. Now as much as we would all like to have a money tree in our backyard, federal taxpayers don’t have that kind of money. Anyone who wants to spend that kind of money needs to take it from taxpayers and while we all want better schools, as you said in your introduction, it isn’t about money. Over the last ten years we have spent 44% more on public education and our results have gone backwards not forwards and that is the OECD PISA result not mine.

Byner: Okay, so how do you turn this around? The Prime Minister has already said on the national wires today that they are quoting her as saying in a few years we will being the top five schools in the world. How are we going to do that?

Pyne: Well not even in the next few years, she is not even talking about a few years, she is talking about 2025. The Prime Minister’s promise is resonant of Bob Hawke’s “there will be no child living in poverty by 1990” and Kevin Rudd saying he would halve the homeless rate by 2020. Labor is very fond of these grandiose rhetorical flourishes. But what parents what to know from government is what you are going to do for my children today, not what you are going to do in 2025.

Byner: Ok, so where do you stand with the Gonski report? Do you want reform? Do you believe it is necessary? In terms of funding, aren’t both the Coalition and the government leaning towards giving each student approximately $10,000 a year and letting their parents, caregivers and so on decide how that money will be spent?

Pyne: Well not exactly. In terms of where we stand in terms of reform, the reform I want to see Leon is a relentless focus on teacher quality. I still believe that the best teacher can get the best from his or her class in whatever setting they are in. But if they don’t have the right training, the right professional development and the right remuneration then you don’t get the best teachers. I want to see a focus on school curriculum, a robust curriculum that isn’t cluttered with social programs.

Byner: Haven’t we got a national curriculum coming up?

Pyne: The national curriculum is in maths, English, science and history. It doesn’t cover the whole curriculum, it will one day. But that doesn’t mean then national curriculum is itself a robust answer. There are still programs that clutter the curriculum taking up teachers’ time.

Byner: Like what?

Pyne: Programs to do constantly with nutrition or with first aid or with being better neighbours or all sorts of different programs. All of which of themselves are important but if you are spending time on those programs then you are not spending time on maths, English, science and history and on the basics. If you haven’t got the basics right then you can’t turn out good student outcomes.

Byner: Christopher, from where you stand, are we going to see the first stages of the implementation of the changing of the way that schools are funded or not?

Pyne: I don’t think we will. The government doesn’t have the money. It is very well to make a speech at the National Press Club full of billions of dollars, tens of billions of dollars I might add of new commitments. But the Prime Minister is expecting us to believe that by 2020 this will be delivered, in three elections time. The Prime Minister couldn’t get a promise for one term that she wouldn’t introduce a carbon tax and we are expected to trust her on a promise that won’t be delivered until 2020. Parents are not mugs.

Byner: So where does the Coalition stand on the Gonski report?

Pyne: Our promise is to keep the current quantum of funding plus 6% indexation; that is $4.2 billion over the next four years. That delivers absolute certainty. We will not be implementing the Gonski review because the Gonski review envisages tens of billions of dollars that taxpayers simply don’t have to fix a problem that isn’t there. OECD PISA says we are a high performance high equity country. Comparing ourselves to Singapore, Shanghai or Beijing, these are city states, they are not Australia. It is nonsense to suggest that Australia should compare itself to systems which bare no similarities to our own.

Byner: Christopher Pyne, thank you. That is the Shadow Education spokesperson on 5AA.

ENDS