We cannot think about raising standards in our schools if we think that teachers don't deserve incentives and rewards for better performance.

In Australia, we are fortunate to have many outstanding and dedicated teachers.

It has meant we have many successful schools and by international standards, a better than good education system.

But given our governments invest billions of dollars of public funds into our education system each year; Australians deserve a system that is better than good.

We can do better.

If we want to improve our standard of living, our productivity and our society, then it is crucial that we confront some of the key challenges facing our education system, including our long tail of students failing in literacy and numeracy, our sub-standard and over-crowded curriculum and our looming teacher shortage and quality crisis.

All of these problems are inextricably linked. Without the top performing teachers teaching the best curriculum, we have lower standards, get poorer student outcomes and have fewer top performing teachers being attracted into classrooms in the first place.