When asked this morning by a reporter at a campaign press conference what changes the Coalition might make to the curriculum, the wannabe PM deflected the question.
“What we’ll do is we’ll work with parents to reflect what they want to see in the education system and that is a good education for their children,” he said.
“When we were last in government, the funding went from $13 billion to $25 billion a year, which was significant – so we’ll continue to fund education at a record rate and we want our kids to get their best possible education.”
In his budget reply address just a month ago, the Opposition Leader said that “a Dutton Coalition government will restore a curriculum that teaches the core fundamentals in our classrooms”.
In March he promised to rewrite the curriculum to cultivate “critical thinking, responsible citizenship and common sense”.
“You have seen other academics that are out as part of protests on the streets, and teachers similarly, and that is being translated into the classroom,” Dutton said at a Sky News forum in his electorate of Dickson on March 31.
“That is not something I support. I support young Australians being able to think freely ... and not being told and indoctrinated by something that is the agenda of others.”
“Our position will reflect community standards in relation to what is being taught at our schools and our universities.”
Shadow Education Minister Sarah Henderson said last month that the curriculum was “imposing many additional hours of work, and we don’t think that’s good enough” and that the Coalition would have more to say about that during the campaign.
Not long after, on ABC TV’s Afternoon Briefing on April 1, Liberal MP Keith Wolahan, when asked if he thought children were being “lindoctrinated” in schools, said this was “loaded language”.
However, the army veteran argued teachers should not bring “radical politics” into the classroom.
“If you are telling your students there is only one particular view or only one is acceptable, that’s not fair on the students and it’s not fair on the parents paying taxes for that to be put into schools,” he said.
Early in the election campaign, when asked about schools and the curriculum, Dutton also spoke about the potential for a Coalition government to condition funding to the states based on their teaching of the curriculum.
At the time, Shadow Education Minister Sarah Henderson said that the curriculum was “imposing many additional hours of work, and we don’t think that’s good enough” and that the Coalition would have more to say about that during the campaign.
There has yet to be further mention of the plan by any Coalition candidate.
As recently as five days ago, during the last leaders’ election debate on Channel Seven, Dutton had also said: “We need to stop the teaching of some of the curriculum that says that our children should be ashamed of being Australian.”
When asked a follow-up question this morning regarding what the Coalition might change about the curriculum, Dutton replied with, “we don’t have any proposals”.
With the official polling day imminent, education peak bodies, including the AEU, have accused the party of “hiding” its plans on the curriculum.
AEU federal president Correna Haythorpe issued a statement on Wednesday saying while education had been a priority issue for voters this election, the continued silence from the Coalition on their plans was unacceptable.
“Peter Dutton and the Coalition have attacked teachers throughout this campaign, with Trump-style fake claims of indoctrination and woke agendas,” Haythorpe said.
“They have threatened to tie school funding to their reform agenda. But with only days to go and millions of Australians having already voted, they have failed to outline the actual changes they will make to the Australian curriculum, if elected to government.”
Haythorpe said with plans for school funding to be tied to “a curriculum based on Mr Dutton’s ideology”, the Australian people must be told what the Coalition’s plans for the curriculum would look like before they vote, as promised.
“Australia’s teachers have campaigned for increased public school funding and they deserve to be backed fully by governments with the resources needed in schools to deliver a high quality education for every child.
“They also deserve to be respected and trusted to do their jobs without political interference,” she said.
Dutton’s response today suggests the curriculum, which was put in place by the Morrison Government in 2022 and has been taught in schools since 2023, will remain in its present form at least in the short-term if the Coalition wins government on Saturday.
