Analysis: Culture starts at top and John-Paul Langbroek must do better

How can the Education Minister get away with lazily dismissing the key challenge he has been given, asks state political editor Hayden Johnson.

Education Minister John-Paul Langbroek (front) with Premier David Crisafulli

If Health Minister Tim Nicholls refused to promise ambulance ramping would improve within four years he’d quickly face the political axe.

So how can Education Minister John-Paul Langbroek get away with lazily dismissing the key challenge he has been given: to ensure our children are better at reading and writing under his tenure.

This unambitious leadership makes a mockery of Premier David Crisafulli’s promise to make his ministers work hard – and to hold them to account if they don’t.

It is not like NAPLAN results are a fringe portfolio issue. This is at the centre of the charter letter issued by Mr Crisafulli in November to his education minister.

The letter identifies, as the second of five “core portfolio values” for education: “Implement strategies to deliver improved NAPLAN results for Queensland.”

But when The Courier-Mail on Monday asked the Minister on behalf of Queensland parents if he would commit to ensuring those results improve, we got this: “What my job is as minister is to work with my department, to say, from a policy perspective … if we can work on the things that we believe, both the department telling us that we think this will make a difference, because they’re the experts, I’m not a teacher.”

If you take the time to wade through that word soup, Mr Langbroek’s message is actually right – in that he must listen to the experts, as he is not one.

However as the LNP so often crowed while in Opposition, culture starts at the top.

How can the department take seriously Mr Crisafulli’s demand for better NAPLAN results if their minister dead-bats questions about whether he will commit to fixing it?

It should be concerning to every Queenslander that Mr Langbroek hasn’t committed to moving heaven and earth to ensure our schools are producing smarter kids within three years.

As we said earlier this month, the education portfolio must be more than a few picture ops at the first day back at school.