Doorstop - Public Education Day
JASON CLARE, MINISTER FOR EDUCATION: So today's Public Education Day, and I'm a product of public education and proud of it. The truth is, as I told the Parliament yesterday, that our public schools have never been properly funded, whether that's by State governments or by Federal governments, until now, until the agreements that we've now struck with every state and territory across the country to fix the funding of our public schools. And that's a tribute to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who struck those deals right across the country. And if you open up the budget books, you can see the real impact of that. It's an extra $20 billion to our public schools over the next 10 years. As I just said on the telly a minute ago, that's not a blank cheque. The money is tied to reforms, the sort of reforms we need in our schools to help more kids who fall behind to catch up and to keep up and more kids finish high school. That's what we need, because in the years ahead, more jobs are going to require young people to finish high school and then go on to take on university. So, this is an important part of big reforms to build a better and a fairer education system.
REPORTER: Just a couple questions to your portfolio first. There were some reports this week around changing the NAPLAN writing test and then also the way HSC exams are done with the rise in AI and the way people are learning. What work are you doing in this space to make sure testing is still up to standard and people and students can still do those testing [indistinct] --
CLARE: On all of those things, I take advice from the experts. So, in the case of writing, I take advice from ACARA who help to set the NAPLAN tests. In the case of how long an exam is, it's NESA in NSW who ultimately make that determination. One of the big pieces of work that we're doing at the moment is about how we improve the national curriculum. So, Ministers last year agreed that the curriculum needs reform and that we should focus on maths first. In particular, the maths curriculum for kids from their first year of school to year two. That work's going on right now. Ministers are going to see the benefit of that advice in the next couple of months. Then we've got to make the decision about where we go next. So, ACARA, the organisation I mentioned, is doing that work. Maths is fundamental, and you've got to learn it in the right order, in the right sequence, so that you understand different concepts. If you don't, then you can fall behind and never catch up. So, there's a big piece of work going on at the moment about the curriculum and, in particular, about maths.
REPORTER: If the focus is on maths at the moment, is there a risk that there could be a little hole or a blind spot when it comes to literacy as more people lean on AI to do the writing, to examine and to read things? And is there a risk that there could be a gap?
CLARE: AI is a big opportunity and a massive risk. Reports out earlier this week I think that pointed to that. We don't want AI to be a tool that students use to replace learning and replace critical thinking. If you go into a school today, particularly a high school, but not just a high school, and you ask children, you ask young people, " Are you using AI?", you'll see a lot of hands go up. And we want to make sure that young people, if they're using a tool like AI, that they're using it to learn, not to cheat. We've already got a framework in place that we built when ChatGPT was released in 2023 that are sort of road rules for the use of AI at schools that do a number of things, including how you properly assess a student, but also how you properly assess a student, so you make sure that they're learning what you're teaching, but also to make sure that if a student types something into an AI prompt, that they don't end up getting an ad sent back to them, that that information doesn't get sent on to a third party. But this is moving so quickly, the challenges are so massive that this is something I'm intending to put back on the agenda through a meeting of Education Ministers later this year.
REPORTER: Just onto news of the day, we've got the CGT and the negative gearing bill being tabled to Parliament, with reports this morning that the Coalition might use the NDIS as sort of a wedge and a bargaining chip. What do you make of that? And I guess, are you optimistic of the government's hopes on getting this through without an inquiry or anything?
CLARE: Well, it's Public Education Day, but it's also Groundhog Day, isn't it? You know the Liberal Party are set to vote against tax cuts again, and that tells you everything you need to know about the Liberal Party. They haven't changed. The bloke that was against tax cuts before the last election is now saying he's going to vote against tax cuts again. No wonder Pauline Hanson is taking so many votes off Angus Taylor when Angus Taylor is saying that he's going to vote against tax cuts. This bloke is like Pauline Hanson without the personality, and worse than that, he's telling the Australian people that he's going to vote against tax cuts again.
REPORTER: You're optimistic of getting this through without a Senate inquiry?
CLARE: Look, that's up to the Senate. What this legislation is about fundamentally is being able to cut income tax, help young Australians to be able to buy a home and making changes to the tax system that make all of that possible. One funds the other. I don't want us to be a country where young people are forced to rent for their whole life, but that's where we're headed. When I was in my 20s, the cost of the average home was about four times average salaries. Now it's about 10. In Sydney, it's even higher. Something's broken here, and we need to fix it. And that's fundamentally what this legislation's all about. Cheers. Thank you.