Thanks so much, Correna, and thank you to all of you for a very warm welcome here, including a couple of people over here who have been Souths supporters for years, who I met on the way through.
So, I begin by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land on which we're meeting, and I pay my respects to elders past, present and emerging.
I do acknowledge your federal president, Correna Haythorpe, and to give credit where credit's due, Correna is relentless.
In campaigning, one of the things about the leadup to that announcement at the National Press Club is that we didn't commit to this in the 2022 election.
So, when I say that the commitments that we take to an election are the start that we're committed to doing, but we always look to be more ambitious - the opportunity came for us to really push and we wanted to get it done before the 2022 election.
And Correna was, I must say as well, something that isn't always present, I understand why - she had faith that we really wanted to deliver. What I said in private was what I tried to deliver them in public, that I was absolutely committed to it, that I'm proud that we were able to deliver it.
And I'm proud that my son went through the entire system through public school, through to Sydney Secondary College through. [INDISTINCT] and it made a difference.
But I could see as well, in talking to the teachers during all that experience, the difference that it would make to fully fund every public school with the school resourcing standard.
I want to acknowledge the federal secretary, Nicole, and all the international education union leaders who are here as well today.
But to the heart of your union, which is your branch delegates and your leadership in the state branches, as members of the AEU, each of you represents a contribution to our nation that is fundamental to our collective success. We know the role that you play.
And indeed, when my car and security pulled up downstairs, there was a person - I'm not sure who it was, Kylie down there - was trying to instruct the C1 car precisely. I said to my AFP driver, don't worry, it's just a teacher telling you where to go. And I, just like the student I was, treated those directions as optional.
But the work that you do in classrooms, in labs, in libraries, in lecture theatres, your passion, your commitment, your expertise, it shapes lives. And there's teachers that explain the world, who help their students find their place within it. In helping young Australians discover and fulfil their potential, you ensure that Australia fulfils our potential.
And the best weapon against disadvantage is what you do, providing people with an opportunity. And what Gonski - it became something that people didn't necessarily understand. It's pretty simple, really. It was about creating the resources so that every child can fulfil their potential, about creating opportunity. And when you create opportunity, you create future success.
And that's precisely why strengthening our public education system has always informed the priorities and the work of Labor governments. It is what Labor does.
But it's also what we need to do to entrench - the Rudd and Gillard governments, which I was a very proud minister of, and leader of the government in the house - because we didn't entrench Labor governments, that got taken away in the 2014 Budget. $30 billion ripped out of education, $50 billion ripped out of public health.
So, when you hear the latest in the revolving door of leaders on the other side of the house talking about fiscal responsibility, we know where they always go. They always go education and health, public education and public health is where they will go.
And that's why our reelection in May last year was so important to bed down the agreements that we signed, one by one, with Correna helping, working in tandem to get state and territory governments, some of which were more enthusiastic than others, to sign up, that we got all signed up prior to that election.
And indeed the last state to sign up, Queensland, we got literally on the day before the Budget on 24 March, knowing that I was going to call the election that Friday.
So, that was a critical delivery to make sure that it was right across the country. We also of course understand that when it comes to public education, it isn't just the schools. And Correna referred to the Jobs and Skills Summit, and what we have done with TAFE is something I'm so proud of.
Here's a simple little exercise for you rather than your students. You can look at the APH website, that has Hansard, and see how many times leaders of the other side politics have ever mentioned TAFE, as a word. It is quite extraordinary. They just never talk about it.
The first time I came to this conference was a long time ago as Shadow Minister for Employment Services and Training, where I first worked with, I'm not sure if the structure has changed, but the TAFE Teachers' Association. It's all changed? Showing my age here, how long I've been in the business.
I worked very closely, because what had happened with the privatisation of the sector was that, simply, Australia wasn't keeping up with the skills that we need. It was actually damaging our economy as well as depriving people from the opportunity to have a career and to be able to contribute.
Not everyone wants to go to university and it's just as fulfilling. In some cases - all the tradies that I went to school came out a lot more prosperous than I was in my early years. And it's really fulfilling. This week I was at Swinburne TAFE, talking with construction apprentices.
And we not only have free TAFE, but in construction and electrical of course we have $10,000 cash incentives.
Good for the individuals, but good for the country as well, if we're going to build the houses that we need and deal with the energy transition that will be so important going forward as well. Absolutely critical.
And I was there at another TAFE that was in Melbourne as well a while ago, and there was a young man there and was going around with me. He was doing construction, carpentry and joinery. And he was beginning his apprenticeship.
He said 'I've almost finished my law degree, so I've started doing this'. 'You've almost finished your law degree?' He said 'yeah, I'll finish at the end of the year, but I've realised I actually don't want to be a lawyer. What I want is to make things with my hands and to see the product of what I do.'
And good on him. That really was a conversation that has really stuck with me as well. And so whether it's schools or TAFE, we have made I think an enormous difference in our first years. More to do, of course, but every time our opponents talk about waste spending, that's what they're talking about.
And the former leader was actually very, very explicit about it. Said people don't value it - this was her opposition to free TAFE - 'people don't value it unless you pay for it'. An extraordinary admission of the ideological condition that was held by the Liberal Party.
Now, one of the other things that we're doing of course in the school funding is to make sure it's targeted, well-resourced and it's guaranteed, but it's linked as well with real reform, investing in what works.
When we signed the agreement in Victoria here, I went to the electorate of Aston in the outer eastern suburbs with the Premier, Jacinta Allan. And there, the teachers there did a demonstration of the primary school we were in, of how they were teaching kids with phonics and what they were doing.
And these kids were amazing. They were just so enthusiastic about their learning, and that is precisely what I know all of you want to see, but what the nation needs as well.
So, tying it up to make sure as well that if a kid falls behind, early intervention, it's a bit like health, the earlier you intervene, the easier it is to lift people up. And in the end it doesn't cost you money, it saves you money. Because it's more effective in terms of the outcome.
If our students are falling behind, we want them to be able to keep up. And so many times we see that issues have not been identified early in a young child's life, and so they've covered it up and that leads to behavioural problems as well as we go through.
So, what this investment is about is just that. Making sure that we turn the commitment that I've made - no one held back, no left behind - into a reality. That's what it means. It's not something that's abstract, as you all know as well.
And we want to empower teachers with the proven methods and the proper resources they need so that you can do what you do best, which is to teach.
So, friends, we have fully funded every government school. We have put public TAFE back at the centre of vocational education and training, and a Labor government will never minimise the power that vocational education and training has to change lives. And we will never minimise, either, the importance of high school education.
And at a time where we talk about social cohesion as well in this country, one of the things about public schools is that they're open to everyone. Open to everyone. That is about people being able to participate, of different place, different backgrounds, learn and engage from each other.
I always love going into public schools as well because for those who, with the rise in some of the far right ideological positions in recent times, one of the things about [INDISTINCT] is the same, particularly whether it's a early learning centre or into a primary school. Kids don't see race, religion, gender, anything else. They just see other kids. Hatred and division is something that's learned.
And so, public schooling is so important. And that engagement, I think, as we go forward can make a big difference. The funding for our schools will come through, put into the Budget last year, but it began to flow this year and it'll flow through each year.
And we ensured as well that state governments are putting in additional resources as well. It was important that there not be simply a transfer.
One of the issues - if you were designing Australia again, you might not have three tiers of government, but we do, so we have to deal with that. And we have to make sure that additional federal resources didn't just result in state resources being lower.
So, the biggest, you won't be surprised that the biggest beneficiaries proportionately are areas where there is the biggest disadvantage. So, Northern Territory for example, is getting an extraordinary boost to the resources as we go forward, not surprisingly.
But if you combine that with what we're doing in TAFE, 725,000 free TAFE courses have been enrolled in. Already, that has produced well over 200,000 graduates, people finishing their courses as we go forward as well.
And we have legislated now to make free TAFE permanent. Cost-of-living relief, helping with skills shortages, boosting the economy, all of that, making a difference. But it's also in other areas as well, when it comes to education that is making the difference.
I've spoken about the $10,000 cash incentives. The other thing that we have done that I'm really proud of is to identify particularly feminised professions and the fact that they have fallen behind when it comes to wages.
We face a crisis in this country. Child care and aged workers, and early educators in child care of course aren't child minders - we know that 90 per cent, over 90 per cent of human brain development occurs in the first five years.
And so, I was in a centre in Latrobe in Tassie just this week, I can't recall what day. Wednesday I think. And there, the people that you meet there making a difference, were losing people from the sector.
Just like we were losing people in aged care as well. [INDISTINCT] Make sure our youngest and older Australians are looked after.
But the other thing we were conscious of as well when it comes to education is intergenerational equity. That's why we cut 20 per cent off the HECS, the student debt, to make a difference. Three million Australians have benefited by an average of $5,500 each. It's an enormous contribution.
The other thing that we've done in a related area is paid prac. I was at the Royal Children's Hospital here in Melbourne on Tuesday, and there I met four nursing students. And for them doing their course, one of them has a six-week paid prac placement. For all of them, at least four weeks.
The idea, I reckon if you went out there and at random stopped people here in South Melbourne and said, do you think that someone undertaking a nursing degree is good? They'd say, yep, tick. Do you think we need more nurses? They go, yep, tick. Do you think that they can survive with zero income over a month or more while they're doing their course? They'd go, no, that's crazy. But that's the truth.
So, paid prac for people undertaking courses in nursing, social work, in these areas as well, the early educators, is really important and is making the difference as we go forward.
So friends, I thank you for invite to talk with you here today. I admire what you do. It's an extraordinary thing to make the decision that you are going to go into a profession - not withstanding the fact that you have a very good union, you don't go into it to make money and to be very wealthy down the track. You go into it because of the commitment that you have.
And that is something that I really, really admire. The last time in government, my Deputy Chief of Staff chose to leave around about 2011 because he decided at age 50, his midlife crisis was he was going to become a maths teacher, teach boys maths in particular.
So, he went and did that. He went back and did his education section to back up his degree at UTS and became a maths teacher. And that to me, I was surprised when he came to see me and told me that. That was a wonderful thing to do.
Now, many of you will have made that decision in your lives much earlier than the age of 50, but you are motivated by making such an enormous difference.
The Labor Party is a political organisation where I think education is just part of our DNA. On top of all of that, I haven't spoke about what we've done with universities as well. 54 regional hubs, 15 suburban hubs in our universities as well. Study Hubs that are making a difference as well. How to expand opportunity.
If you look at some areas, the differentials on people going to university can really be determined by postcode. And one of the things that we need to do is to make sure that you can't identify people's opportunities in life by looking at postcode in they were born.
Certainly, if you look at where I was born and the circumstances, you would've got pretty good odds against me standing here addressing you as Prime Minister today. But through opportunity I was fortunate to have unconditional love and connection from my mum, a single mum. And that can make a difference.
And for teachers each and every day, the power of education is the wind in the sails of a young person's life as they go through. So, thank you for what you're doing.
Thank you to the union for the leadership that you have shown as well. Campaigning, obviously campaigning for on industrial issues, but on this issue, I can't think of a union - as much as I don't want this reported to all of the ACTU executive next week - I can't think of a union that has run such a long campaign, absolute commitment not to help teachers, to help those that you teach, to help your customers, if you like, to put it that way. To help students.
And that is to your great credit and you should be really proud. This is your victory that you achieved through that unmitigated, relentless commitment, that you showed through your union's leadership backed up, of course, by the union's membership.
Thanks very much.
