Good evening, everyone. It’s just wonderful to join you.
To Vanessa, to Alistair. and of course, to my great friend Michaelia, who’s leading the charge on behalf of the Coalition against what we consider are these draconian proposals.
I also want to acknowledge Ann-Marie Hermans, who’s a Liberal member of Parliament, in the state parliament, and a special shoutout to Colleen Harkin from the IPA, anyone who’s interested in phonics, in explicit instruction, in evidence-based teaching, in what works, in fixing the curriculum, have a look at the great work that Colleen is doing. we are on a unity ticket in terms of the need to improve our academic standards across this country by introducing evidence-based teaching.
But tonight, ladies and gentlemen, we have a message for you. We have faith in your future. The Coalition has faith in your future because your faith matters.
And we are going to fight for you. We’ve been fighting, and we will continue to fight until together, we win.
We are determined to take your schools, schools of faith, whether they’re Christian, Buddhist, Islamic, whatever the faith. We want to take all schools of faith forward, not backwards. And our word is our bond. Our word is our bond. And tonight, I just want to emphasize that your voice really matters.
I am the patron senator for Aston. We’re here in Aston, a marginal seat. I have responsibility for a number of Labor-held seats in Victoria. The scary thing about these proposals, the bills that I haven’t seen, only Michaelia and very few other people have seen, is if we don’t have the numbers in the House of Representatives, and we can’t depend on the Greens, as you well know. And so opposing this legislation in the Senate is going to be a very difficult task. And we have seen how this government guillotines debate in the Senate and shoves through legislation many times with no debate. And that is a shocking reflection on our democracy.
So when you have a Parliament that has the ability to pass legislation, knowing what the numbers are in the House and the Senate, there is one way to stop this and it is your voice. The government needs to know that your voice is going to rise to the rooftops, to the skies, to the heavens and say, no, we will not accept this. This is not our future.
The sad thing is that backing schools of faith should not be about politics. It should not be a partisan issue. Freedom of religion is fundamental in our country, just as freedom of association is. Freedom of speech. But we are in the fight of our lives, unfortunately, because this has become partisan.
So it’s no coincidence that there are no representatives here tonight from the federal government, including the local member for Aston. But I do have a message from a local deputy principal of a local Christian school who couldn’t be here tonight. He has children at this school, and he happens to be running as the liberal candidate at the next federal election here in Aston. His name is Manny Cicchiello. He’s a wonderful man. And his message is, “as a deputy principal of a local Christian school, I stand by you, I pray with you, and I will fight for you from the bottom of my heart. Thank you for that honour.”
Just a couple of points about this proposed legislation. We know schools of faith are not seeking to discriminate. We know that your ability to employ teachers and other staff, in accordance with your tenants and your beliefs and your values, is fundamental to your school and to your school community. That’s at the core of this problem. We know that you cannot build a community of faith unless you share the values of your faith with your community, and we are concerned with these proposals that if anyone can come into your school with a whole range of different faiths and beliefs, they can become activists and changing the law, unfortunately and regrettably, can attract activists. And that’s not what we want to see.
And I want to reassure you, as the shadow Minister for education, I have met with many school and faith leaders and I have been so impressed with the way that schools deal with really challenging situations in their schools, and that’s incredible. They deal with difficult issues, difficult challenges, and I deal with those challenges and issues with compassion, with empathy and tolerance, and with love.
Now I just want to briefly mention, I’m looking at the clock, just gone to 9 o’clock, we are also concerned about a range of other issues as to the future of schools of faith and independent schools in this country. You might be aware the Productivity Commission has proposed to abolish Deductible Gift Recipient status for all schools, including would you believe, public schools? So that means if that was to be accepted and we’ve seen a very lukewarm response, oh no, that’s not our policy. That’s no coincidence, I would put to you.
If that happens, that’s an end to school building funds, school library funds, school scholarship funds. And for independent, faith-based schools, Catholic schools. That would cost the school communities some $3 billion in investments. That is appalling. Another black cloud we’ve seen from this government.
There was an announcement of teachers scholarships because so many schools are under pressure with teacher shortages. Great let’s get more young people into teaching. Teacher scholarships, some $15 million of investment. But guess what? There was a catch. When the government announced the detail, those scholarships were only going to student teachers who planned to teach at a government school.
That is appalling, that is discrimination and that is not the Australia we know and love.
So, ladies and gentlemen, as your Shadow Minister for education, can I say I’m very proud to be working with Michaelia, with Peter Dutton, with our Coalition team to fight for you. I’m proud of the way that we are prosecuting the importance of raising school standards. I am proud to fight against indoctrination in the classroom, which is becoming more and more of an issue. I am proud to fight against the division and the hatred and the incitement that we are seeing in some schools, but mainly on some university campuses, the fight against antisemitism.
Racism in this country is abhorrent in all its forms. We will not stand for it.
We’ve called out the government, we’ve called out the University vice-chancellors who are not standing up and taking action against antisemitism. And I can tell you, universities that do not enforce their rules against discrimination and intimidation and harassment, that will not happen under a Coalition government. I can give you that guarantee.
Ladies and gentleman, we are proud to fight for your freedom. We are proud to fight for your faith. We are proud to fight for you. Thank you.