Today
HOST: Prime Minister Julia Gillard joins us now. PM, good morning to you.
PM: Good morning, Karl.
HOST: You love a barney, don't you!
PM: Well, some things are worth fighting for Karl, and getting our kids a better education is certainly worth fighting for.
This is what got me into politics; this is why I'm here. This is the thing that I'm most concerned about and most worried about for our future.
I was in China last week, I get to travel around our region, I can tell you they are improving their schools and we can only be the strong nation, the winning nation in the future, if we improve ours.
It's the right thing to do by our kids.
HOST: You love going head-to-head with those fellows who run the states though, don't you? Are you going to win?
PM: Look, it's not about the fight, it about the outcome. It's about what happens in schools.
I want to make sure that whatever school a child goes to, whether they go to the local state school, a Catholic school, an independent school, it has got the resources in the school necessary to get them a great education.
And that might mean that they have got a school librarian where they didn't used to have one. That there are better teachers in the classroom, that they have got more skills to manage things like disruptive behaviour and bullying.
These are the things that are important for kids' education, and how well they do at reading and writing and maths and all those things that build a future.
HOST: I don't think there is a person going around Australia at the moment who doesn't want more funding, want to see more funding going into our schools, and I do as well as a parent of three kids that are going to school.
Last week we heard from the Australian Bureau of Statistics that the average Australian was a 37 year-old mum living in the suburbs was a mortgage and two kids at school.
This is my question: what difference do they see in these reforms? What will they see when their child goes to school, what difference in the children will they see, what difference in their teachers will they see?
PM: For that mum I bet she is incredibly concerned about the quality of her children's education. So first and foremost, any school they go to will have the resources it needs.
Every school will have a school improvement plan that that mum can track and see how the school is improving, and how well they are going at delivering those improvements.
Those improvements will include things like better support for the teachers, so we are getting the best into teaching and they're getting better at their teaching practice in the classroom every day.
Those extra supports will be enough for things like the best of new equipment; iPads and smart boards.
It will be enough to have specialists in the school, maybe a science teacher to really start that passion for science, a literacy coach to help the kids who are falling behind, a librarian who can help spark a love of reading.
All of these things will be possible with these new resources and you will be able to track the progress every step of the way.
It won't be a mystery to you what has happened once your kid has walked in the school gates, you will be able to know what is happening in your child's school.
HOST: The problem I guess is - and we are seeing it today with some of the premiers - if you are the average Australian living in WA you're hearing Premier Colin Barnett saying hang on, you have got the portion howlingly wrong for us. He's called it “a terrible day for his state” - an actual cut he says of 25 per cent per student.
And Queensland Premier Campbell Newman says it's just one big mirage. Why would they sign it and is the average Australian in those states going to be worse off than say for example in New South Wales?
PM: Absolutely not. No. Every state is going to see more money for schools in that state on the basis that we're putting in $2 for every $1 coming from states. So everybody gets more money.
Now, in terms of how much more money for each state, Karl, states are in different positions and the aim of this is that every school around the country has the resource it needs to get the kids a great education.
Some states have further to go than others, that's undoubtedly true.
WA is rightly proud of its education system but there is more we can do there, there is $300 million more we can do there, and I want to get it done.
For Queensland, well for Premier Newman to just dismiss this out of hand I don't think is really the right approach.
We're talking about the future of the kids in his state, the quality of the education they get and ultimately the strength of the Queensland economy because we cannot have tomorrow's jobs if we don't have people who are capable of having the skills to do them, and that all starts in grade one, grade two, grade three.
That's why I want to make sure our kids succeed.
HOST: We'll see how you go with the negotiations with Colin Barnett because he's going to be all fired up about this I'm sure come Friday.
Anyway, let's move on to the universities; they're crying foul, universities are crying foul this morning.
You would know also that the author of these changes that you have enacted, David Gonski, has said as Chancellor of a leading Australian university - the University of New South Wales - “I fervently believe in and will continue to advocate that increases be made in funding the university sector”.
You have done the opposite. Are you telling them suck it up?
PM: I can absolutely respect David Gonski's words and as Chancellor of a university of course he would be there, putting the case for universities.
I said yesterday Karl; if I was a Chancellor of a university I would be saying similar things. But my job is as Prime Minister to weigh all of the benefits here.
In universities we have increased funding by more than 50 per cent. That's a lot of money. And we will continue to increase funding.
What we are asking universities to do is to have a lower growth rate in that funding. So there will still be more money for all universities against a back drop 50 per cent increase, but we are asking them to take a slower growth rate to help us benefit 3.5 million children around the country today.
But it is not only about today's kids, it is about getting this school system right for the generations to come.
Properly resourcing our schools for all of the generations in the future, that is what I want to achieve; a lasting change for our nation.
HOST: If you were a university student - it was not that long ago that you were - you would be burning effigies of Julia Gillard today, wouldn't you? Hey?
PM: I don't think I would be Karl, because way back when, when I was in university - and I was reminded of this in recent days because one of the men responsible for it actually died recently - but when I was in university we all participated in this broad coalition called Let's Develop Education.
This is where my passion for schools and change comes from. So university students like myself standing alongside teachers, alongside university academics, alongside parents' groups under the banner that said Let's Develop Education. And it was all about kids and schools and opportunity. Understanding what a privilege it was to get to university.
I have taken that with me since those days I was out on those university hustings, and I still believe in that now. And I don't think it is unfair to ask university students to still get more student income support than has ever been in the system before.
We have increased that by more than 70 per cent just in terms of one cash grant; a start-up scholarship, changed that to a loan that they pay back when they're earning money in the future so that we can help our kids. I don't think that is an unfair ask.
HOST: One final one for you PM this morning. The polls aren't crash - you're flat-lining down to 29 per cent - what do you say about those polls and moving forward. It's tough for you to continue at 29 per cent.
PM: Karl, as you know we see a lot of opinion polls. They are at least weekly, sometimes we get a couple in a week.
So the only numbers I'm interested in today are the ones about our new plan for school funding and school improvement.
Ask me about $14.5 billion for schools, they're the numbers that are worrying me.
HOST: Alright, thanks for your time today PM, appreciate it.