PRIVATE MEMBERS' BUSINESS
Ms RYAN (Lalor—Chief Government Whip) (18:59): I'd like to begin my remarks by thanking all the teachers who showed up in classrooms today across this country. I'd like to particularly thank the graduate teachers who went to work today and had a bit of a tough day but will be back again tomorrow with a smile on their faces and a welcome for every student as they enter their classroom.
Teaching is really complex. School leadership's really complex, and I'm glad that the member for Nicholls, in his one day as principal for a day, learned so much about the education system. I'm so glad that he wants us to use evidence based things in our schools, yet he came here with no evidence for most of the assertions that he just made!
Seriously, it was riddled with errors. Where are the state negotiations up to, member for Nicholls? Perhaps you'd like to read a newspaper, or perhaps you could go to Minister Clare and ask for a briefing.
The Victorian deal is signed, and every Victorian state school will be funded by the Commonwealth to 25 per cent of SRS, Member for Nicholls. But you're a Victorian and you want to talk about Victorian schools, so let's start there. Let's start somewhere else.
Bringing this here to the federal parliament of Australia really has more front than Myers. The Commonwealth assists in funding schools, but it does not run a school; states run schools. Second, I just want to make sure everybody understands the hypocrisy in mentioning the funding programs and the funding agreements when those opposite, when in government, dashed the hopes of a generation of teachers.
They dashed their hopes that their work was finally going to be valued by a Commonwealth government, because they stopped the movement on Gonski. They told people, through their actions, that education was not valued in this country. In fact, what they did was cap the Commonwealth contribution to the SRS for state schools across the country at 20 per cent, but they didn't put a cap on private schools.
Like the member for Nicholls, I have been principal for a day since I've become an MP; unlike him, I was a principal for a lot longer than that. That means I understand the funding models. It also means that I can go to the My School website and I can see right now where independent schools in this country are being funded by the Commonwealth more than state schools are being funded by the state.
That is the legacy of a coalition government. So, for those who are listening in at home, just know that those opposite don't value education; those opposite want to criticise teachers. They want to criticise society.
They don't understand the complexities of teaching at all. They want to talk about social media impacting our classrooms. If I have to hear from one more male member in this place about how they know about schools (a) because their mum was a teacher or (b) because they went to a school, well—as a profession, we'd like to be valued for the work we do, for the training we did, for the on-the-job training we did, for the perpetual learning that we committed to on the first day we walked into a school.
Mr Birrell interjecting— Ms RYAN: I didn't bring your family into it. Mr Birrell: You did. Ms RYAN: No; someone else did.
The member for Nicholls needs to understand that he wants a magic wand to fix student behaviour and he wants the Commonwealth to magically find this magic wand. I'll tell you what happens with student behaviour: hard graft, professional teaching and learning, people committed to a profession and committed to student outcomes—that's what the magic bullet is. It's really, really complex, and no-one sitting on the benches in this place with no experience should be suggesting that they know the answers to these questions.
They can consult, but one day as principal for a day does not make anyone in this place an expert on education or on schools. From prep through to year 12, we have committed teachers walking into classrooms. They need to be respected for their professionalism.
People in this place do not need to tell them how to do their jobs; they need to ask what supports they need to make them better at their jobs. That's what places like the federal parliament should be busy investing in. In terms of the OECD and the outcomes, the fundamental thing that the conservative government missed in all of this debate is that, in schools where there isn't a chasm in funding between private and public, they're performing better.
But you don't want to hear that, you don't want to see that evidence, and you don't want to understand what it means. The DEPUTY SPEAKER ( Ms Sharkie ): I'll just remind all members to direct their comments through the chair.