Page 772 - Week 03 - Tuesday, 1 April 2008
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MR SPEAKER: Order!
MR BARR: They are fast and easy when it comes to dishing it out, Mr Speaker, but they can’t even sit in silence to give the opportunity for the other side of the case to be presented. So the challenge for Mr Pratt is to sit there and shut up for 15 minutes. It will be hard. Let me respond to a number of the allegations—
Mr Pratt: I don’t remember a personal attack on you, Andrew.
MR BARR: Settle down, Pratty. Take a Bex and lie down.
Mr Pratt: There was no personal attack on you, mate.
MR BARR: You’ll be right.
MR SPEAKER: Order!
Mr Pratt: Resort to the personal attack.
MR SPEAKER: Order, Mr Pratt! This is not a discussion across the chamber; it is the discussion of a matter of public importance.
MR BARR: It is, indeed, Mr Speaker, and a matter of significant public importance. But let me go to a couple of the clear factual errors in Mr Smyth’s comments—most particularly his denigration, again, of the public education system.
It is important to note, for Mr Smyth’s benefit, that PISA tests students across all sectors. So if the suggestion is that the public education system and the government are responsible for the decline in performance not only in the ACT but across Australia, it is interesting to note that the same has been the case with the performance of all OECD countries. That might lead you to ask a question about national education policy and perhaps about international education policy. It might lead you, Mr Speaker, to want to look at a little bit more detail regarding the nature of PISA’s examination and also, very importantly, at the question of sample size, standard deviations and standard error.
I will happily accept responsibility for the decline in performance of the ACT if those opposite will accept responsibility under a federal Liberal government for the decline in performance of the entire nation across the same assessment period. What does that tell you, Mr Speaker, about the level of commonwealth investment—
Mr Smyth: You’re in charge everywhere.
MR BARR: Not throughout the entire period that PISA was examining. I know it has been a while since the Liberal Party won an election in this country; nonetheless, it is worth noting that Australia’s overall performance declined. That suggests there has been a failure to invest in education at a national level.
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