Transcript: Julia Gillard, Press Conference, Perth
Julia Gillard
posted Monday, 9 August 2010
E & O E – PROOF ONLY
Subjects: Education reforms, Australian Baccalaureate, No School No Play, election costings, Peter Costello, Election Campaign Forum, NAPLAN Tests.
PM: Thanks very much. Well thank you very much for joining me today and it’s fantastic to be in this great school in Challis. A school that shows the benefits of strategic investment in education. We have made a difference here with our education reforms particularly our national partnership money. And I know that through the Principal Lee and I also know it because I’m joined by Alannah MacTiernan who’s played a strong role in this school and is of course the Labor Candidate for Canning and I’m joined by our Minister for Education Simon Crean. I just want to make a few very brief remarks and turn to Simon and then we’ll take your questions, given you’ve already seen me run through the new policy.
But what I want to say today is: today I’m here outlining my vision, my plan for school reform in this country. Building on my achievements to date as Minister for Education. If we look at the great economic reforms of our age, the things that have driven wealth and prosperity in this country: making sure that the dollar was floated; making sure interest rates were set independently; bringing down tariff barriers; and making sure we were competing with the world. These great Labor economic reforms have brought the prosperity that we enjoy today. Now is the time for the next major round of reforms and education is the lynch pin for the reforms we need for the future. It is about fairness and giving every child a great education. It’s also about our future economic prosperity. Today I have announced some policies to build on what I have already done whilst Minister for Education and announcements I have already made during the course of the campaign. In summary, they are about driving for further school improvement; rewards for schools to keep improving; rewards for our best teachers who drive school improvement; having access to on-line tests that fit with national testing to keep driving the improvement of individual school performance; and to join with our new national trade cadetship program, having an Australian Baccalaureate, a qualification of excellence which Australian students can aspire to.
I’ll turn now to Simon Crean for some comments and then we’ll take your questions.
CREAN: Thanks Julia it’s my pleasure to be part of Julia’s Government, another great reforming Labor Government when it comes to education. I’ve been part of both the Keating and the Hawke Governments which too made great investments in the education of this country and I might add my father was part of the Whitlam Government that also understood the importance of investing in education.
Why is investing in education so important for the nation? It’s important for two fundamental reasons. It empowers the individual, it enables them to have a creative rewarding opportunity in life and to earn higher incomes. But investing in education is also hugely important for the growth of the nation. If we invest more in early childhood education we lower the cost later on of having to make the corrective mechanisms in education and dealing with the problems. But if we invest more in students achieving Year 12, we lift national productivity. If we invest more in vocational education and training, we also lift national productivity and if we invest more in our universities, we also lift productivity. The cumulative impact of all of these investments is to grow a nation stronger, to make it more sustainable and to give us the capacity to keep re-investing in the drivers of economic growth. It becomes a virtuous circle. And that’s why we are so determined to keep making the commitments. The reform
agenda that Julia has outlined today indicates how we want to build on what has been the most significant investment in school education in the first term of any government in the history of the country. We have seen it double. We’ve seen it double because we’ve focused the school facilities and you see one of them over there that is soon to open. We’ve also invested in the National Partnerships and this school is a great example of how National Partnerships can really tackle disadvantage – disadvantage that’s identified by the school community and where we work together to address it.
But we are also investing in transparency and information about how schools function and we’re also investing in teacher quality and rewarding the best of our teachers.
The final point I would make is the Baccalaureate announcement made today, is really the trifecta in terms of opportunity for people going through Year 12. We’ve indicated that Year 12, where we want to lift the retention rates to 90 per cent by the year 2015, we need to offer options by the way in which people get their Year 12 equivalents. We’ve obviously got the opportunity for entry into university. We’ve got the opportunity for entry into the workforce. Today this caps it out with an internationally recognised qualification, in which the credit can be recognised for entry into the global university or tertiary system. So it’s my great pleasure to be here again with Julia, part of another great reforming Labor Government when it comes to education. Reform for education itself an opportunity but reform because it strengthens the economic base going forward.
PM: Thanks Simon.
JOURNALSIT: Can I just ask you a question about giving the extra funding, the $75,000 (inaudible) –
PM: Yes.
JOURNALIST: How was it determined whether a schools doing well? I realise that it’s not just going to the A plus schools, but is it purely concerning literacy or numeracy or if a school’s doing well in band program, or at sport?
PM: That’s a good question. And the answer is: there will be an evaluation mechanism which will include the principal sitting with a committee of experts that will evaluate what’s happening in the school, there will be class room evaluations and then there is the maths that we can do because of MySchool on improvement in literacy and numeracy. The concept here is: most improved. Kids come to school with all sorts of advantages and capacities. Some kids come to school with a lot of disadvantages. We want to be rewarding schools that are lifting kids up and getting them to be the most improved.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister do you mean on academic level?
PM: Well the class room evaluation and the committee of experts sitting with the principal will be able to take into account whole school performance. So it will include literacy and numeracy but not be limited to literacy and numeracy.
Yes.
JOURNALIST: What are you going to do for the very poorest schools? Won’t rewarding schools that are improving simply increase the gap between the very poorest schools and those that are doing relatively well?
PM: Quite the reverse. We are investing as a government in schools that are in disadvantaged communities, we’ve brought to the table $1.5 billion to do just that. And you’re standing in a school that is benefiting from that and it is showing real outcomes. Children are doing better in reading and writing and counting here in this school today because of our investment. We want to build on that and if you’re building on it through looking for the most improved, the most improved, then you can see as school like this one that has children who come from homes often where there is disadvantage, we would be measuring and looking at and evaluating what the school has done to improve the journey of those students. We are not talking about raw scores. If we were talking about raw scores, your criticism would be valid. We are talking about the most improved.
Yes.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister just with the NAPLAN test there have been some examples where teachers may have helped their students through a test in order to get better scores. If there’s now a financial advantage for the schools and a direct perhaps financial advantage for teachers in this program, how are you going to stop the system from being rorted?
PM: Well there are protocols now for the rolling out of national testing. And I understand, and our experts at the curriculum assessment and reporting authority which I created, understand, that we need to keep a very vigilant eye on what else needs to be done to ensure the integrity of national testing. So we will continue as necessary to lift integrity measures so the results of the national tests are valid. But let’s remember, during my watch as education minister for the first time ever in this country, kids sat down and did the same test on the same day. And for the time ever in this country you could know what the results of those tests were. I do note that Mr Abbott says if he becomes Prime Minister that we’ll be gutting MySchool.
Yes, Latika.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, on your 10 per cent pay bonus for teachers – one, how will you measure that? Two, how what happens if they have a class of underperforming children (inaudible)? Three, how does the Commonwealth pay for it, in terms of (inaudible) for the States and then allowing them to pass it on and also, with your No Play, No School policy yesterday announced, what happens in terms of health care outcomes? Don’t you want kids to play in sport given all we have about the obesity crisis?
PM: Ok, very important concept here and it’s now reflected in two questions. We are not talking about raw scores. We are able, through the methodology in MySchool to have a measure of the capacities that children bring to school. We are therefore able to measure the improvement that school provides. Now some kids are going to come from disadvantaged homes and start here. If the school does that much then it has done more than a school teaching advantaged kids who came in at this level and only up that much. Most improved. So any, you know, problem about what about a classroom full of children from disadvantaged homes – not a problem because of the methodology.
On - and we want, I want to reward and I just should say the next sentence, and I want to reward a teacher who is in a disadvantaged classroom who transforms kids lives by making sure that they’re most improved. Now maybe that mightn’t be obvious to the people passing on the street because it doesn’t look like a wealthy schoo,l but if that work is going on in that school, we should recognise it – more for the school, more for the teacher. The nation should be saying to that teacher and that school – job well done and that’s what this policy is about.
On No School, No Play – I stand by the concept. Kids have to be in school. We cannot make a difference to children’s lives if they are regularly not attending school. Any mechanism in our power to drive better school attendance should be used.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister are we over blowing the rhetoric here describing these education announcements as a fundamental economic reform? Isn’t a world class education in this country a fundamental human right, in a country like Australia and isn’t this just an indictment on governments perhaps stretching back to the ‘70s or ‘60s when you were going to school and there were equal opportunities for people both Labor and Liberal?
PM: Well, let’s just get to the facts here. What drives wealth in a nation? Participation and productivity. What gives you the edge in participation and productivity? It’s your investments in human capital. We look at our country today, we can do more to lift productivity. We can do more to include in our workforce more adult Australians – these are challenges we have to face. I’m standing here with a plan today about investing in school education because it will make a dividend for productivity and participation in the future. It’s an economic reform and if we want to use the language of economists, I mean, the great the reforms of the Hawke and Keating age were reforms going to our international competitiveness. Now we are talking about the reforms in our domestic economy. Today we’re talking about the education system and obviously as a Government too, we have committed to profound reforms in health and let’s do the contrast. You know, I’m here today with a transformative education plan which is a transformative economic plan. Mr Abbott, as the alternative candidate for Prime Minister, has no economic plan except cuts to health and education and putting a tax on groceries. That is absolutely transparent after his campaign launch yesterday.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, the reward payments won’t start until 2013, the Baccalaureate won’t come in until 2015 at the earliest. Why can’t this happen sooner?
PM: Well some of these reforms will come into play more quickly than that. For some we’ve obviously got to build the Australian Baccalaureate will take set up time and advice from experts and we will get it right. On the school reward system and the teacher reward system, we need to build the systems to do the evaluation but the method here, and we are talking about very substantial investment as this rolls out. The method here is to say I want continuously improving schools. I want to know what’s happening in each of them. That’s MySchool. I want kids, principals and schools aiming to do better every day and for the schools that do better, for the teachers that do better, we will reward them because they deserve it. Yes.
JOURNALIST: I was going to ask the same question as (inaudible) so I’ll ask you a different question instead but on (inaudible). Sorry about that. (Inaudible).
PM: This election, this election is a tough, close contest and it’s going to be a photo finish and I believe that every day of the election campaign. I believe it today but what I will say is this, I think as we close towards election day Mr Abbott is coming under more and more scrutiny, and more and more scrutiny about his lack of an economic plan except for cuts to education, schools like this one, cuts to healthcare and wanting to whack a tax on groceries for things that families buy every day.
JOURNALIST: In terms of both the payments to the teachers and the online testing. Isn’t there a danger, you know, that online things that parents can help their kids to learn the test, isn’t there a danger that your focussing so much on these tests that the rest of the education system can suffer? Isn’t it more about giving kids a well rounded education rather than teaching them how to answer these tests?
PM: Yes, of course it’s about a well rounded education and in order to get a well rounded education you’ve got to be able to read, write and do mathematics. I can’t think of a human pursuit that is better improved by not being able to read, write or do maths. So for anything that we want kids to do for the future, whether it’s music, whether it’s art, whether it’s drama, whether it’s science, whether it’s sport – kids need to be able to read and write and do mathematics. So unashamedly there’s a focus on literacy and numeracy but if you look at the reward structure here, the reward structure here is also about assessing how a whole school is performing. For secondary schools it’s about assessing how their preparing kids for the rest of their lives, where kids go after school, what sort of job the school has done in getting kids to the next stage of their lives. So this is taking a rounded approach, but understanding that at the core, at the centre, it is not acceptable in a modern age for kids to go
through school, promoted grade after grade and not mastering how to read and write. Yes.
JOURNALIST: (inaudible), have you identified the specific savings (inaudible).
PM: Look, the savings are being announced day by day. It’s not a saving within education being matched in that sense but savings are being announced by us day by day, but I do note and it’s a very important question, Mr Abbott is racing his way through to $30 billion of policies that haven’t been costed - $30 billion. Now, Mr Abbott – not interested in economic matters. No economic plan and racing his way through to $30 billion of uncosted promises. I think, during this election campaign, as more scrutiny comes on Mr Abbott, he needs to answer the question. He’s got no economic plan except cut-backs. Why isn’t he saying that, doing what he said he would do and getting his policies properly costed. Yes, over here.
JOURNALIST: (Inaudible) and what it would like is upfront cash payment in order to implement specific programs. Would you be willing to consider that?
PM: We’re a government that’s almost doubled the amount of money going into education already. So there are more resources flowing from this Government than ever before into school education. They were the reforms that I drove as Minister for Education. They were the right reforms. It’s the right thing to do to put money into schools. We are now talking about the next stage. The contrast here, of course, is Mr Abbott who would rip money out of schools – no more computers, no more Trade Training Centres, no more investments in better quality teaching. All part of having no economic plan. Well we’ll go here.
JOURNALIST: Can you properly explain the mechanism for how you will decide these bonus payments. Can you just walk through some detail of how it works?
PM: The bonus payments for schools or –
JOURNALIST: For teachers.
PM: Ok, for teachers. The bonus payments for teachers – there will be, we’re driving new national standards here. That is a reform I have already implemented. We’ve got an Australian Institute that is working to define the standards – what it is to be a graduate teacher, what it is to be an accomplished teacher, what it is to be a leading teacher. So those standards objectively defined, then against those standards, objectively defined, we will evaluate classroom practice. There will be an office of evaluation that will drive this process. We’ll evaluate classroom practice. We will look at results against the benchmark of the skills and capacities that kids bring to school and principals will participate withindependent experts, in making these decisions. So you’ll get the benefit of the view from inside the school, the benefit of the view from outside the school, driven by experts and you’ve got the benefit of the most improved methodology that we can now do understanding the base line for kids when they come into school.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, will you have independent assessors coming into schools and seeing them first hand, will it be managed at a federal level and also when it comes to the payments, will that be managed by the Federal Government or will that be provided through the State Government?
PM: Well obviously in terms of pay mechanisms for teachers in State schools, those pay mechanisms are in the hands of State Governments so we will need to work through those pay mechanisms, but the system will be ours and we will have an office that specifically drives the system.
JOURNALIST: How well do you think this will go down with the teacher’s union who haven’t been too happy about some of your other reforms, do you think they’re going to embrace the incentive program for teachers?
PM: Look you know, I was an Education Minister absolutely focused on reforms, you know we have schools for the benefit of children and the reason that I want to have great quality schools right around the country is I want to see very child get a great education and that requires that child to be taught be great teachers. And one thing that fills me with optimism for the future is that there are great teachers right around this nation. I’ve literally met hundreds of them. People who have devoted their lives day after day, to making a difference for children. And when I meet those great teachers, they’re not afraid of scrutiny, they’re not afraid of being challenged to step up to do better, because they want to do better, everyday for the children that they are literally devoting their lives to.
Sorry we’ll go to the back and then come forward.
JOURNALIST: Firstly, is it your intention that the Australian Baccalaureate will eventually replace the State School leaver system and secondly, I’ll come back to that question.
PM: Sure the Australian Baccalaureate will stand alongside the current State School Certificates so – it’s not the right terminology – the Australian Baccalaureate will stand alongside the current State based certificates. We will have options here for kids. During this campaign, we’ve announced one option, which is our national trade cadetship system. I want it to be easier for kids to move from school based vocational education and training into an apprenticeship, so we’ve announced that. The current State based certificates will remain, but students will also be able to choose this new option of the Australian Baccalaureate, a prestigious academic certificate.
JOURNALIST: Just on the pay for teachers correct me if I’m wrong, but would it be that a senior teacher in a classroom, the maximum they could earn under this is $88,000 a year. I’d appreciate that that is well above the average wage, but when we compare that to say doctors or lawyers it really is peanuts and if we are wanting to attract the best and brightest teachers would you consider upping that?
PM: This is a bonus around 10 per cent of salary so I think it can make a difference in that sense. It’s our way of rewarding and recognising great teaching.
JOURNALIST: On the baccalaureate, can you explain, is it going to be an actual study program or is it exam or other assessments that students would just do at the end of school? And I mean there’s, you’ve already got the International Baccalaureate, what would the Australian Baccalaureate offer that the IB doesn’t already?
PM: That’s a good question, the Australian curriculum assessment reporting authority that is generating the National Curriculum is working on the senior curriculum that’s been open for consultation, so that’s for years 11 and 12. We would ask the same curriculum experts to design the curriculum for the Australian Baccalaureate. So that curriculum could be different and I anticipate it would be different from the curriculum being taught to lead to State based certificates. As for assessment methods, obviously the experts would design that, not the Minister for Education or me as Prime Minister. That would be designed by our curriculum experts. What’s the difference between the International Baccalaureate and this? Well by definition the International Baccalaureate is not inclusive of Australian content. That is, if you wanted a prestigious academic certificate and study Australian history, that is not possible at the moment, of course it will be with the Australian Baccalaureate.
JOURNALIST: Peter Costello has been launching over at the Liberal Party’s campaign in Higgins today and he said that the Labor Party’s ads showing him scoffing at Tony Abbott’s economic credentials have been cut to deceive, he says he’s then basically, he’s just says he’s been quoted out of context and he says you should have the decency to pull them off air.
PM: Well can I just use Mr Costello’s words about Mr Abbott, unedited here we go: Mr Costello’s words about Mr Abbott, quote: “Never one to be held back by the financial consequences of decisions. He had grandiose plans for public expenditure,” end quote. This is the man seeking to be Prime Minister of this country, no economic plan and racing towards $30 billion of uncosted promises. Peter Costello is a man who doesn’t mind a quote, he goes on, this is, at the time he was leaving politics, he was being asked about preserving his economic legacy, the Costello legacy, journalist: “Who do you think will preserve your economic legacy now you’re leaving?” Costello: “Well I was pretty interested to see that a lot of comment in the last 24 hours has been coming from my good friend Tony Abbott.” Journalist: “Do you think, do you look at Tony Abbott as the next stalwart?” Costello: “Not on economic matters.” And it goes on, Costello in his own words, his memoirs, this is Costello speaking, “He used to tell me,” this is Abbott, “He used to tell me proudly he learned all his economics at the feet of Bob Santamaria. I was horrified.” Mr Costello in his own words. Mr Costello when he said those words was right. Mr Abbott is not interested in economics and that explains why he’s got no economic plan for the country’s future other than cutting schools, cutting hospitals, bringing back WorkChoices and putting a tax on groceries. Sorry yes.
JOURNALIST: You say Mr Abbott spends too much. Here you accuse him of taking money out of everything.
PM: Well, Mr Abbott is making the wrong judgments. Mr Abbott made the wrong economic judgments when the Global Financial Crisis threatened, he would have cost us jobs. He’s making the wrong judgments now. It’s the wrong judgment to cut hospitals and schools whilst racing towards in other expenditure announcements around $30 billion of policies that haven’t been costed. Yes.
JOURNALIST: On former leaders and deputy leaders speaking, Andrew Peacock has said this morning that “you’d need to be pretty handicapped not to appreciate the Government is dissolving before your eyes daily”, I wonder what you make of that comment? And also, if we are to listen to what Peter Costello says about Tony Abbott, why are we to ignore what Mark Latham says about you?
PM: Well my point about Peter Costello, he’s obviously making some comments today, seeking to run away from his past words, I’m reminding you of his past words. On comments from Mr Peacock, they’re a matter for Mr Peacock.
JOURNALIST: What you’re expecting from the public forum in Rooty Hill this week and are you disappointed that it’s not a proper debate?
PM: Well look that’s a good question and this is a remarkable turn of events in this election campaign. I said, that I would debate Tony Abbott on the economy. I believe the nation should be scrutinising his lack of economic plan compared with my clear plans for the future including what I have announced today. When I said I would debate Tony Abbott on the economy he said his campaigned arrangements were locked in and he couldn’t put that debate into his diary. Well as it turns out, both of us will be in the same place at the same time in Sydney on Wednesday night, I’m very happy to make it a debate, I don’t see how Mr Abbott can say, given he’s going to be in the same place at the same time, that he won’t debate me now.
JOURNALIST: (inaudible) would be the logical next step to following the national curriculum, surely you think that’s a good idea.
PM: Ok, the reforms here are about options, I want to see kids able to make choices, choices for a trade education with vocational education and training in school that counts, in our trades training centres through our cadetship program. Mr Abbott wants to cut the trades training centres. I want to see kids able to choose, going on to their State based certificate, I want to see kids able to choose this new option of the Australian Baccalaureate.
Thank you very much, we do have to go I’m afraid so, right last one really quickly. Don’t say I’m not generous.
JOURNALIST: Two years is a long time between NAPLAN Tests. Why won’t you have kids site the NAPLAN Tests every year as the Coalition’s promising?
PM: Well I’d be a little bit surprised if a Coalition promise of that nature – given they want to gut MySchool – what are they going to do, get the kids to sit the test and then pulp them? So you know you have the test for a purpose. Reason I have the tests is so parents can get report cards and know what’s happening in schools. Mr Pyne on Mr Abbott’s behalf said he would gut MySchool. The reason for having the diagnostic test there, if at any stage of a child’s education journey, you can use our world class national test against our world class achievement band scale to see how a child is performing. Thank you very much.
Tags: costing, Crean, education, Gillard, reform