Senator BERNARDI (South Australia) (15:14): You can tell that Senator Carr's heart is not in this portfolio area. You can tell he is not prepared to do the hard work and heavy lifting, because he asks questions during question time which have been pre-prepared. He asks supplementary questions which have already been addressed by the minister. Then he takes notes of answers with a pre-written speech which he reads verbatim. It is an extraordinary display of hubris, arrogance and outright laziness from a very sloppy opposition shadow minister. The shadow minister said that he believes there is not equity. I would suggest to him and those on the other side of the chamber that equity is having good outcomes. It is not about throwing good money after bad; it is about delivering outcomes. That is something that those on that side of the chamber have been abject failures at. Senator Carr suggests that the money should go where it is needed. Let me suggest to Senator Carr that the money is needed for Queensland students, who those on the other side of the chamber neglected to fund. The Labor Party were going to rip $1.2 billion out of education funding under some guise of a national agreement which was not national at all. I ask: what do they have against the people of Queensland? Are they so embittered by their experience of the former Prime Minister from Queensland, Mr Kevin Rudd, that they do not want to support the Queensland people who elected him? It is a shameful indictment, and the embarrassment is written across all of their faces. Senator Bilyk interjecting— Senator BERNARDI: They are not vigorously defending the Rudd legacy, let me tell you that. Let us have a look at Mr Rudd's and Ms Gillard's legacy—the legacy left behind by those on the other side. Labor's performance in education can simply be described as a dismal failure. The PISA results—as the shadow minister asked about and as the minister articulated—indicate just how great their failure has been. In maths we have dropped from 15th to 19th on the PISA table; in reading we have dropped from ninth to 14th; and in science we have dropped from 10th to 16th. It is a shameful indictment on their lack of ability to deliver outcomes. The left of the political spectrum has this belief that borrowing more money and throwing it at a problem without actually applying it in a disciplined and meaningful way is somehow going to give you a different result. It does not. Doing the same thing and expecting a different result is the definition of insanity. The PISA report found that teacher quality is absolutely important and is integral to delivering outcomes to students. Your problem is that you are not interested in the outcomes. You are more interested in 'the art of seeming' than the art of actually delivering. That is what the fundamental rejection by the Australian people of Labor's brand of politics has been about. You were all spin and no substance. You know that, Senator Furner; I can sense it. And that is why education in this country is in the state that it is in now. What I find extraordinary is that shadow ministers cannot come in here and debate the substance, in a meaningful way, of the topic of the questions they have asked in their portfolio areas. They have to have a prewritten, pre-typed speech to deliver—with all the passion of an undertaker, I would suggest. It is an extraordinary indictment and a suggestion— Senator Bilyk: Arthur Sinodinos could not give a straight answer to the question. What does that say about Arthur? Senator BERNARDI: I note the interjections from someone who should not be giving us lectures about delivering outcomes and things. In fact, it has always been my policy and my belief that it is better to remain silent and only be thought a fool, than to speak and remove all doubt. That is what I would suggest to you. Teacher quality is critically important. Teacher quality is absolutely critical. The Australian school system needs better teachers. We know that. It needs a consistent approach, and that is exactly what the coalition is intent on delivering. We are re-applying $1.2 billion that Mr Shorten ripped out of education funding. We are making sure that school students in those areas which were neglected by the Labor Party are being adequately funded so that their education can deliver better and more meaningful outcomes for all of us. (Time expired)