Ms MACKLIN (3.51 p.m.) —I wonder who it was who started the debate this year that really hoed into some of the most important institutions in our country, our government schools. Who do you think it might have been who said that our government schools are value free? It was none other than our Prime Minister, ably supported by the Deputy Prime Minister. It is no good that we have a Deputy Prime Minister who comes in here and says that he weeps for some of the schools in our country. It is not good enough to weep for our schools; the job of a Deputy Prime Minister is to stand up for the schools that are not good enough. It is not good enough to stand on the sideline and throw pot shots.

Mr Anderson —Mr Deputy Speaker, I really must take a point of order. I did not say that it was the responsibility of the schools. That is ridiculous. That is a misrepresentation of my position, and I ask that it be corrected.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER (Mr Jenkins)—Order! There is no point of order.

Ms MACKLIN —It is the job of the Deputy Prime Minister and of the Prime Minister of this country to stand up for all of our schools, the places where the vast majority of our children learn, not to weep and not to throw pot shots at them. It is very hard to believe, but clearly this government has no idea when it comes to coming up with real policy to address the significant problems that face many parents in this country. I wonder if the Deputy Prime Minister even knows that there are one million Australians of parenting age who cannot even read a book as simple as Green Eggs and Ham. That is how many parents cannot even read to their children at night. It is not good enough to weep about them; that is not our job. Our job in here is to create good public policy. That is what we are here for, and the 15 to 20 per cent of people of parenting age who cannot read children's books are our responsibility. It is a responsibility of this parliament to make sure that those parents get the chance to read to their children.

What we want to do in the policy that the Leader of the Opposition has announced is make sure these parents can do that. These parents are robbed of the joy that each and every parent in this parliament knows so well—the great joy not only of reading to our children but also from the lovely nurturing that comes from sitting with children and the way in which, night after night, the children ask for the same book to be repeated, until we learn those books off by heart ourselves. Some parents get fooled that their two-year-olds can read because they can parrot off the books as well. Of course, parents who cannot read do not get that joy. They do not have that capacity to sit with their children and do not get the wonderful experience of watching their children grow and learn to communicate with other people.

I know, from schools in my own electorate, that there are children starting prep classes with very poor capacities to communicate. They have very poor language skills, not because their parents do not speak English but because they have not been read to. Their parents do not have the capacity to read to them and encourage them to get familiar with the whole experience of reading. There are no books in their homes. So these children start school way behind the eight ball. Not only do they not have the enormous love of reading that we try to infuse into our children, but they do not have the language skills that come from that great interaction with books at a very early age.

Labor's reading aloud initiative intends to break what can only be described as a very tragic cycle. The biggest element of Labor's reading aloud initiative is $40 million to improve parental literacy. This is what public policy is about: seeing a problem and finding a solution; putting hard-earned taxpayer's money—that is what it is—into fixing a problem to help parents learn to read to their children. We know that great work is already going on in many communities to help parents gain literacy skills. And we know that they need these not just for reading to their children but for getting a job and for the everyday things that reading enables you to do. But there are far too many parents falling through the gaps of the programs that are available.

We know how hard it is for parents and adults. We know how ashamed they are to admit that they cannot read. At the adult literacy program in my own area they tell me some of the tricks that parents get up to so they do not have to admit, to their children in particular, that they cannot read. They flick through the channels instead of looking up the TV guide. They say to their children, `I haven't got my glasses with me.' These are the tricks that parents learn because, of course, they are humiliated. I do not think we should underestimate that. They are humiliated, especially in front of their children, about being unable to read and write.

Adult educators say to me that this is a key motivating force to get these parents to learn to read. That is why one of the initiatives in the policy that we have announced is to have outreach workers go out, identify, support and motivate these parents to make learning to read and write a priority in their lives. We want to make it very comfortable for these people, because we understand how tough it is to admit that you cannot read and write once you are an adult. We know that it is also a great relief to many adult literacy students when they realise that there are a lot of other people like them and that they can admit this in a class, because they are not the only ones that cannot read and write. It will be very exciting to see so many more parents get the chance to learn to read and write if this Labor initiative is put into place.

One TAFE literacy teacher put it well to us today when he said: `Often learning is not my students' No. 1 priority; survival is.' For many of these parents it is very tough. They have to think about providing shelter and feeding their children, so getting to learn to read and write themselves often comes second. That is why we want to work with community organisations like the Smith Family and the Brotherhood of St Laurence—the organisations that are already helping these families—to make sure that they not only provide the basics of life—shelter, food and so on—but also enable these parents to connect with literacy programs. We want to make sure that education really is the key to a brighter future, not only for children at school but also for those parents who have missed out. Our literacy program is going to fund an extra 4,500 adult literacy places, which will be targeted at parents. What about a sensible initiative like this from the Deputy Prime Minister, instead of all that hand wringing we got? What about a really serious policy that says 4,500 more parents can learn to read?

We know that it is very tough for these parents not only to read to their kids at night but also to get a job. If you cannot read and write getting a job is very difficult. In getting ready for this debate the Deputy Prime Minister should have looked at another program that the government have given a good going over. They capped the funding for the Language, Literacy and Numeracy Program, a program that provides support to disadvantaged job seekers to improve their literacy and numeracy skills. Job seekers used to be able to get access to 400 hours of literacy support if they were unemployed for a long time. Many of those people cannot read and write very well, if at all, and they are now going to get only 200 hours of literacy support. That will be the entitlement. That is the policy approach of this government. No wonder all we had from the Deputy Prime Minister was a heck of a lot of hand wringing.

At Christmas time I went to the Olympic Village adult education certificate presentation, which was a wonderful event. At that presentation a 60-year-old lady came up to me, almost bowling me over with her strength of feeling. She gave me a massive hug and said, `At last I can write a letter myself.' She is 60 years old and her children have grown up. They did not get the chance to be read to by their mother but, thank goodness, at last she has learnt to read and write. She now has the pride of being able to write a letter herself. We are going to make sure that people like her get more and more opportunities to learn to read and write. We know that this takes leadership at the national level. Real leadership is required when it comes to reading to children, not weeping and hand wringing. (Time expired)