Doorstop - Canberra

JOURNALIST: Minister, you say the NAPLAN results that are out today indicate there's reform needed within the school system. What do you mean when you say that?

JASON CLARE, MINISTER FOR EDUCATION: Have a look at the Better and Fairer Schools Agreement that I've released just a couple of weeks ago and signed by the Commonwealth and the Northern Territory Government. It sets out the sort of reforms that I want to tie extra funding to. Things like phonics checks and numeracy checks when kids are little in year one; things like evidence-based teaching, things like investing in catch up tutoring. 

That means providing extra support for kids who are falling behind by getting them out of the classroom and into a room where there might be one teacher and a couple of kids. The evidence shows that when you do that right, kids who fall behind can learn as much in six months as they'd otherwise learn in 12 months. In other words, they catch up. 

JOURNALIST: That sounds pretty good. What are the States arguing against? 

CLARE: Some of that's happening now. I think States agree that that's a great thing that we should be investing our money in. The arm wrestle at the moment is who pays for it. And I've put $16 billion of extra funding on the table. If that's accepted and that's implemented, that'll be the biggest extra investment by the Commonwealth Government in public schools ever. Ever. And what the States are saying is they want the Commonwealth to pay for all of it. I've said, “let's go halves.” That's where the arm wrestle is at the moment. 

JOURNALIST: How concerning is the gap between Indigenous children?

CLARE: It is bloody serious; is the way I describe it. And it's not just Indigenous kids, it's poor kids, it's kids from the region as well. 

I don't want us to live in a country where your chances in life depend on who your parents are, where you live or the colour of your skin. And the truth is, we are today. What the results show is it's one in 10 kids who are below what we used to call the minimum standard. But it's one in three kids from poor families, it's one in three kids from the bush and it's one in three Indigenous kids. 

And as I said in the interview with PK a minute ago, what the data doesn't show, but I'll tell you, is that only one in five children who are below the minimum standard when they're little have hit it by the time they're in year 9. In other words, most children don't catch up. That's why investment in things like catch up tutoring is so important.

JOURNALIST: How does that relate to children from migrant families as well?

CLARE: Have a look at the data. There's some reporting in the papers there today, but that's showing, and I don't want to say across the board, but many, many children from migrant families are doing very, very well.

JOURNALIST: Just on funding, I'm always so shocked when I drive through places like Sydney and Melbourne and you just- just even looking at some of the private schools where they have pools, theatres, multiple ovals. I went to a public school; we didn't have any of that. Do you think that private schools should be getting less funding to help those public schools along the way?

CLARE: I'm a product of public education and damn proud of it. I want to make sure that our public schools are funded properly and that we use that money to help our kids at public schools. I'm not trying to break the Gonski model, I'm trying to finish it. At the moment, private schools are funded at the level that David Gonski said they should be at. Public schools aren't. There's a 5 per cent gap there. The argument is about who funds that. And I'm saying to the States - we should chip in and so should the States. The Northern Territory's agreed. If the Northern Territory can chip in extra money, then I think the other States can do it as well.

JOURNALIST: How much of the slide in this education is due to COVID? Like the lags of kids being in lockdown?

CLARE: Really good question. One that I looked at carefully here, because the kids that sit this test, the children that sat this test in year 3 this year, were children that were in lockdown in 2021 in Sydney and in Melbourne. Still looking for more evidence of what the impact is, but it looks, on initial inspection, that for year 3 students, they did pretty well in literacy compared to their peers last year, but numeracy was a bit lower. So, I want to do a deeper dive into the impacts that those COVID lockdowns in 2021 might have had on children that sat this test this year.

JOURNALIST: What's your response to Peter Dutton's calls to cancel or not grant visas to people who stay in Gaza?

CLARE: There's no people coming out of Gaza now. Gaza is locked down; the Rafah gate is closed. What I'd say to Peter Dutton – he knows this – is that the same security checks that were in place when he was a Minister are in place now. And I'd invite Peter Dutton to come to my electorate and meet the people who've come here from Gaza. 

There's more than a thousand people from Gaza here now. These are people who've had their home blown up, who've had their school blown up, who've had their hospital blown up, in some cases have had their kids blown up, and these are people who are trying to rebuild their lives here in Australia. Come and visit them, look them in the eyes and I think that he'll learn a bit.

JOURNALIST: How would you characterise his response, his attitude to that, though? He's saying that these people should not be in Australia, should not be coming to Australia because it's a national security risk. How would you characterise that?

CLARE: I'll leave it to you to characterise it. What I'm saying is, come and meet them. And I think that his impressions, his understanding will change. 
These are people who want to rebuild their lives here in Australia. These are people who've lost everything, sometimes including their kids. And in some cases, these are people who are halfway through a university degree, when their university was blown up, who are halfway through a medical degree, who want to be a doctor; halfway through a dentistry degree, want to be a dentist. They want to rebuild their lives here and can make a fantastic contribution to this country. 

JOURNALIST: Is he just resorting to his comfort area? 

CLARE: No. I'll leave it to you to make an assessment of that.

JOURNALIST: What impacts do you think that comments like that from Peter Dutton have on? You know, you mentioned they're the people in your own electorate. What impact do you think those comments have on people who have come to this country from that part of the world?

CLARE: Again, I'll leave it to you to make an assessment of that. All I'm saying here is if Peter Dutton wants to get a good understanding of who the people are that are having their homes blown up and their kids killed in Gaza, then come to my electorate and meet them and you'll understand a little bit more than you do now.

JOURNALIST: You know that electorate, though, how will those comments be received there? Some people might have family still over there trying to get here or know.

CLARE: People in my community are hurting. I often say that the war in Gaza feels like a world away from most of us. But in my community, it's much, much closer to home and the dead bodies that we see on our TV screens almost every night, for the people in my electorate, those dead bodies have names. Sometimes it's mum, sometimes it's dad, they’re family, brothers, sisters, children. And so, they feel it intensely. 

I've got a friend of mine, her family is trapped in a church in Northern Gaza. There's more than 400 people who've been living in a church now for more than nine months. And if they go outside, there's a risk of sniper attack. People have been shot and killed outside the church. They've got to get food. They need medicine. They are living like that now for nine months, I've had the privilege to be on Skype calls and talk to them and understand the lives they're living. They're human beings. They're just like you and me. And they're trying to survive. And that's why my community, like, I think anybody with a brain, anyone with a heart, would be saying, this war needs to end. The fighting needs to stop. The killing and the slaughter of innocent people need to stop. The starvation of kids needs to stop.

JOURNALIST: Just very quickly on Bluesfest, Bluesfest is looking like it's going to be having the last festival after a 35-year run. What do you think that says about the arts sector in Australia, and particularly when it comes to cost of living? Do you think that people are cutting back on spending on arts?

CLARE: I'll defer to the Arts Minister Tony Burke on that one.

JOURNALIST: What was the last festival you went to?

CLARE: Mate, I don't know if it's a festival. What's the last show I went to? Went and saw Hamilton the other day. And not a festival, but a bloody good show.

JOURNALIST: You say that people in your electorate are hurting with what's happening in Gaza at the moment. Do they expect your government to be doing more on the international stage to be able to stop that war?

CLARE: They want us to do everything we can to get this war to stop. You know that friend of mine who I told you her family's trapped in a church? I told her the other day about a vote that we had in the UN to increase recognition of Palestine. And she texted me back and she said, 'Will it stop the war? Is my family now safe?'. And the truth is, they're not. 

What my community wants is the killing to stop. That's what they want. And that's what we as a Government are doing everything in our power to stop. That's why we've called for a ceasefire now for more than nine months. That's why we've voted for it in the United Nations. Ultimately, though, this is in the hands of the parties, including Israel and Hamas. And I'd call on both of them to listen to the call across the world for the killing and the slaughter in Gaza to stop.