E&OE TRANSCRIPT
PRESS CONFERENCE
SYDNEY
TUESDAY, 1 APRIL 2025
SUBJECTS: Peter Dutton’s cuts to education
JASON CLARE, MINISTER FOR EDUCATION AND LABOR CAMPAIGN SPOKESPERSON: Thanks very much for coming along this afternoon. Today, Peter Dutton exposed how dangerous he would be if he ever became the Prime Minister of Australia, because today, Peter Dutton said that if he wins the election, he’ll cut funding for health and he’ll cut funding for education. Tony Abbott promised before the 2013 election that he wouldn’t cut health and he wouldn’t cut education, and then he did. Peter Dutton is saying today that he will cut health and he will cut funding for education. It’ll start with the Department, but it won’t stop there. Then he’ll cut funding to hospitals, and he’ll cut funding to schools, because he’ll have to. He’ll have to, he wants to fund those $600 billion worth of nuclear reactors that he wants to build. Peter Dutton let the mask slip today, just for a minute, to see what he’s really up to here. He’ll cut, and you’ll pay. Parents will pay, patients will pay, and our kids will pay, because of the cuts that he wants to make to our health system, to Medicare and to our schools across the country. Happy to take some questions.
JOURNALIST: Minister, Peter Dutton has seemed to guarantee there will be funding for services and education, but he hasn’t ruled out cuts to the Education Department. What would the impact of future cuts be?
CLARE: It would be massive. Just have a look at what happened last time the Liberals were in power, they ripped the guts out of funding for public schools. $30 billion they ripped out of schools, and we’re still feeling the consequences of that today. The number of kids finishing high school today has dropped massively compared to what it was 10 years ago. 10 years ago, it was about 83 per cent of kids in public schools have finished high school, now it’s down to 73 per cent. There’s an example of the impact that the cuts that the Liberals made last time.
Peter Dutton said this the other day, quote, ‘you should look at what politicians do as much, or probably more than what they say.’ Well, I think Australians are starting to have a good hard look at Peter Dutton and looking at what they did last time. Last time, Peter Dutton as Health Minister ripped the guts out of Medicare trying to make people pay a tax to go to the doctor, and he was part of a government that ripped the guts out of funding for our schools, and we are still dealing with the consequences of that today.
JOURNALIST: He’s also spoken about potential cuts based upon whether a school is promoting an agenda or if they’re woke. What do you think about the term being woke used in reference to our curriculum, and is this straight out of the Trump playbook?
CLARE: I’m focused on making sure that our kids learn to read and write and count. I’m focused on making sure that our kids can read and write, not this extreme agenda of Peter Dutton, that’s the truth.
The curriculum that he’s talking about is a curriculum that was signed off by the former Liberal Government three years ago today, 1st April 2022. It’s 1st April today, right? When Peter Dutton started saying today that he’s going to cut funding to health and education, I thought it was an April Fool’s joke, but he said it last night as well, and that should put the fear of God into any Australian that cares about Medicare, that cares about our kids.
I think the Australian people are starting to see a bit more of Peter Dutton, and they don’t like what they see. Last week, he said that he would increase income taxes of every Australian who pays income tax. The week before that, he said he’d stop allowing people to work from home. A couple of weeks before that, he said that he was going to make Australians pay for their boss’ lunch. Yesterday, he said that if he becomes Prime Minister, he wants to live on Sydney Harbour at Kirribilli, and today, he’s saying that he’s going to cut funding to health and he’s going to cut funding to education. I think most Australians would be shaking their head and saying ‘this is not the bloke who he wants Prime Minister of Australia.’
JOURNALIST: Do you think though that the curriculum is too woke?
CLARE: This is the curriculum that Peter Dutton signed up to. I’m focused on making sure that we reform our education system, that we make it better and that we make it fairer. The kids who fall behind at school catch up and keep up, and more kids finish high school. That’s what the agreements that I’ve struck with every state and territory across the country are all about. Let’s just be very clear about what these agreements are. This is the biggest new investment in public schools by the Commonwealth Government in Australia’s history, the biggest investment by the Commonwealth Government ever, and it’s tied to real reform. Not a blank cheque. This is tied to the sort of reforms to help to make sure that our kids do learn to read and write and count, the kids who fall behind catch up and keep up and finish school. And the fact that Peter Dutton isn’t focused on that, the fundamentals, I think, shows that he’s distracted by these culture wars.
JOURNALIST: They’re bringing this up now, three years later, after they, as you said, endorsed the curriculum. Why do you think they are now raising these ideas of First Nations studies being an optional add on to different subjects you can choose, and do you think it’s important to have First Nations studies embedded in our curriculum for our next generation?
CLARE: In relation to your first point, you would have to ask them. Seriously, I can answer lots of questions, but I can’t tell you what’s going on in Peter Dutton’s head.
In relation to the other matter, it’s important that Australians learn all of our history.
JOURNALIST: So just one from myself, a little bit of a side track here, but the ABC is reporting that six Australian universities have closed their Confucius Institutes in the last few years. Is that been the right course of action?
CLARE: I’ll refer to the answer I gave on RN this morning.
JOURNALIST: But obviously you say that, no, there’s no direction that’s been given, but do you think it was the right move for those universities to mitigate the risk of foreign interference?
CLARE: I support the actions that the universities have taken.
JOURNALIST: I’ve just got one more reference to universities and Trump again. We’re seeing some researchers being detained in the US, some academics sometimes for their personal opinion on US policy. Should Australian researchers be reconsidering future travel to the US, and is this now potentially a concern?
CLARE: I refer you to the answer I gave on Australian research this morning. Australian researchers are some of the best in the world. We punch above our weight when it comes to the work that we do in our universities. We represent about 0.3 per cent of the world’s population, but we do 3 per cent of the world’s research. It’s in the interests of countries like the US and the UK and countries in Europe to work with us, because we’ve got some of the best researchers that there is all around the world. And Australian researchers want to work with their counterparts around the world, because when you work together, you get better results.
Let me just make one last point then. If Peter Dutton thinks it’s a good idea to cut funding to education, then he seriously needs to go back to school, because education is the most powerful cause for good in this country. It’s the investments that we make here in child care when kids are little, investments we make in our primary schools and our high schools to help to make sure that more young people finish school, things like free TAFE and cutting the cost of HECS by 20 per cent, the things that we need to do to help make sure more people get the skills they need for the jobs of today and the jobs of the future that are going to help to build a better and a fairer and a stronger country. And that’s why I say that if Peter Dutton seriously thinks it’s a good idea to cut funding to education, he needs to go back to school. Thanks very much.
ENDS
