Dr Bruce Flegg
Member for Moggill

The tired 20 year old Labor Government’s election eve education slogan won’t fix the literacy and numeracy problems plaguing Queensland schools now, the State Opposition said today.

Shadow Education Minister Bruce Flegg said today’s announcement did nothing to change the fact the Bligh Labor Government was failing Queensland children in the most basic facets of education - reading, writing and arithmetic.

"Queensland is ranked last, or near last, of all the states in literacy and numeracy standards across all year levels," he said.

"Nationwide testing shows more than a quarter of Queensland’s Year 3 students can spell no better than the minimum standard, while by Year 9 a third of students reach just the minimum standard in reading.

"That is the education legacy of this tired, 20 year old Labor Government and Anna Bligh’s time as Education Minister.

"Clearly, Labor has failed to deliver the right literacy and numeracy outcomes for Queensland students in their first seven terms in office, and now they expect us to believe they will deliver on yet another education promise in their tenth term."

Dr Flegg said there was nothing revolutionary about promising to spend money you don’t actually have yet.

"Anna Bligh is the past master of making big spending announcements before an election and then failing to deliver afterwards," he said.

"This is a Labor Government that wasted the billions of dollars they got from the last mining boom on debacles like the health payroll, the Traveston Crossing Dam and the ZeroGen clean coal project, and are now making promises about how they will spend money from the next mining boom.

"Education is a core function of the State Government that has to be funded properly to fix the system, not reduced to a bumper sticker and election slogan. Do we really want the future of education to be dependent on the mining industry alone?

"While Labor is putting all its eggs in the mining basket, the LNP will grow a four pillar economy based on agriculture, tourism, construction and resources to get all of Queensland back on track and to deliver the services Queenslanders deserve and expect now and into the future.

"Queenslanders want results in education, not another bumper sticker slogan."