address to parliament- PRIVATE MEMBERS' BUSINESS - Education

The shadow minister for early childhood education and youth certainly summed it up when she talked about the failures of Labor on this particular issue. Education is so important. It is the great enabler, particularly for our young people, and Labor has let them down on their watch.

At the moment we have got record HECS debt. It went up seven per cent, indexed from the end of June last year. These young people are getting into the workforce. Yes, it's the best loan you can ever take, but when you combine it with the cost-of-living crisis it is so difficult for these young people. Housing affordability is going to be so much more difficult for them than for, you could perhaps argue, previous generations. The shadow minister referred to there being a childcare desert in regional areas, and she is so correct. Labor talks a big game about the affordability of child care, but it is availability in regional areas that is the crisis point. They can't find a childcare placement. I know we have listened to the health minister recently talking about how, if you can't find a bulk-billing doctor, then you should just jump on the phone and take the next available one. That could be hundreds of kilometres away for somebody who lives in a remote area or, dare I say it, a rural or regional area. And it's the same with child carers. The member for Mallee knows what I'm talking about all too well. She's all too well aware of what I'm talking about when it comes to childcare availability—not necessarily affordability but availability.

Under Labor we've seen savage cuts of up to $102 million to university research programs, programs that have meant such a difference. I know in my electorate, where agricultural excellence is promoted and pushed by Charles Sturt University, we can't afford to be cutting research programs. We should be doing more in the space of R&D. On the abolition under Labor of the 50 per cent pass rule, which safeguarded students from incurring debt, the question is: why has this taken place? There's now a start-up loan scheme for courses that were previously free, a student support scheme that delivers no substantive support. These things have happened on Labor's watch. There are declining standards with no solution in sight. And there was a very interesting article, promoted by both the ABC and the Guardian just the other day, in relation to the fact that up to a third of Australian children cannot read properly as teaching methods cause preventable tragedy. That was the Grattan Institute.

You talk to teachers, and they're overwhelmed by the work that they have to do. They have to be all things to all children these days. I take my hat off to our teachers. They work very hard, and they put the kids' welfare first and foremost, as they should. When only 12 per cent of Australian 15-year-olds are able to read at an advanced level, with children from poor families 10 times more likely to have deficient reading ability compared to their richer peers, you have to ask yourself: where is our country headed? Reading is of such critical importance. It doesn't matter what occupation those kids will be doing in the future. It doesn't matter whether they become an astrophysicist or if they work in manual labour, they need to be able to read and write. Under this Labor government, reading and writing standards have, sadly, slipped.

Labor, of course will point the finger. As so many of them do when they get their talking points, they just read them straight from the piece of paper that they've been handed. The fact remains we need to be looking after our children better. We need to be able to make sure that those educational standards are better. Indeed, the HECS debts are only going to increase with the inflationary crisis that we've got under Labor's watch. We've got the cost-of-living crisis under Labor's watch. We have a lack of childcare placements under Labor's watch. Fees have increased. Out-of-pocket costs have skyrocketed, and no additional places have been created for families when it comes to child care.

The education minister talks a big game on the National School Reform Agreement, but so far there's been no national agreement and no school reforms. What's the education minister doing? What's Labor doing? Life is much more costly and much harder under this government.