’National pride’ and ‘Western values’ the focus of Coalition education plan that would reduce First Nations content

Content on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and culture, Australia’s engagement with Asia, and sustainability would be cut from the Australian curriculum under a Coalition plan to teach students about “national pride” and “Western values”.

The shadow education minister, Julian Leeser, revealed during a speech delivered to an education conference on Saturday in Sydney that the Coalition would remove the three cross-curriculum priorities.

According to the Australian Curriculum, the priorities – which are not separate subjects – allow students to engage with and better understand their world by providing opportunities to enrich the content of other subjects like English, history and science.

But Leeser claimed these priorities “almost by definition [mean] they’re not being taught by people with subject matter expertise” and did both the topics and teachers a disservice.

He instead said they should be delivered as discrete, planned topics within history, geography or science classes.

“If you’re teaching a maths or science or history class – I’d like you not to have to worry about incorporating those additional bits,” he said.

As part of the Coalition’s curriculum reform proposal, Leeser also said students should be taught and exposed to the “foundations of Western culture” including democracy, the rule of law and “a fair go”.

“I want Australian students to learn more about all three strands of our history: our Indigenous heritage, our British foundation and our multicultural character,” he said.

“Let every school have a flag and let every student take pride in it, its history and the values for which it stands.

“On teaching our children about national pride, there is much to do.”

Meanwhile, One Nation’s current education platform states “there should be no room for Western, white, gender, guilt shaming in any classroom”.

As Leeser and the Coalition attempt to win back voters from One Nation, their policy committed to streamlining pathways to make it easier for mid-career Australians to pivot to teaching, addressing student behaviour, reducing screen time and AI use, and lifting educational outcomes for boys.

The 2025 Programme for International Student Assessment results, released earlier this month, found Australiahad dropped to its worst ever results for maths and reading, and that classroom disruption remained among the worst in the world.

Leeser also floated the idea of helping veterans become teachers.

“When I think about the need for better classroom behaviour and more discipline in our classrooms, about the need for more support for Australian values, it seems to make sense,” he said.

He also claimed Labor was “only for public schools, but we are for all schools”.

“We need to stop class war politics and recognise that school funding is about funding for students, wherever they learn,” he said. “It’s time to restore excellence to Australian schools.”