BEFORE I was elected to parliament, I spent 10 years teaching at high schools on the North-West Coast.

I grew up in Wesley Vale, just out of Devonport, in a farming family who valued education.

I was sent to Hobart for my secondary and university education.

I returned home, but most people from the North-West who got a university degree didn't. The graduate exodus led to the perception that encouraging education would result in losing your children to Hobart or to the mainland.

The Australian Greens will fund 2235 new teachers in disadvantaged government schools as part of a $1 billion scheme to relieve the pressure on teachers and schools and lift Australian educational achievement.

Australian Greens leader Senator Christine Milne said as many as a third of all government schools would get an extra teacher to help reduce teacher workloads, with another $20 million a year for teacher mentoring and professional development.

To help all Australian children stay healthy, we must teach them how to grow, buy and cook good food. Nothing beats hands-on learning at school.

Pressure in our daily lives is seeing good life skills like knowing how to choose, prepare, cook and store nutritious food become less well-known.

We need to foster a culture of knowledge and pleasure in growing, choosing and cooking healthy food among our children.

The Australian Greens have a $46.5 million plan for teaching kids what they need to know about food including funding up to 800 new school kitchen gardens and ensuring healthy eating and nutrition is part of the national curriculum.

"One of the best things we can do to help our children lead a healthy life is to teach them about food - how to grow it, choose it, buy it, cook it and store it," Greens Leader Senator Christine Milne said.

The Australian Greens have released their fully costed paid parental leave scheme today which is designed to support Australian families and help women stay in the workforce.

Read the full plan: Balancing Work and Family, Better Paid Parental Leave.

"Labor's scheme scrapes together the bare minimum without superannuation whilst Tony Abbott's plan is inequitable," Australian Greens Leader Senator Christine Milne said.

The Australian Greens have expressed disappointment and frustration that COAG has wasted an historic opportunity to deliver fair funding for Australian schools.

"It is totally unacceptable the Liberal state governments are playing politics with education, while Australian children are missing out," Australian Greens Leader Senator Christine Milne said

With only three full weeks of parliamentary sitting before the election, the Government needs to commit to a legislative agenda to guarantee the full Gonski school reforms, the Australian Greens said today.

"When is the Gillard Government going to legislate the full Gonski school funding reforms?" Greens Leader Senator Christine Milne said today.

 Subjects: Labor leadership spill, Gonski

CHRISTINE MILNE: We can't allow the next seven weeks to just be a discussion of Tony Abbott's agenda, which is to try to drive further instability and to try to further undermine confidence in business around Australia. We have to make the next seven weeks a focus on bringing the money forward in the budget to support more money into public education around Australia.

 "Today I am calling on the Prime Minister to introduce the full Gonski school reforms when parliament resumes in May," Greens Leader Senator Christine Milne said.

"Unless the Government introduces the legislation in Budget week we risk the reforms not being bedded down before the election.

"Don't make the first day of parliament the Tony Abbott day of instability. Instead, we should be putting a smile on the faces of students, parents and teachers across the country by putting the funding schedule into Gonski legislation.

Christine Milne answered questions from the press after her speech to the Australian Education Union National Conference

For the transcript of the speech please follow this link to our website: http://greensmps.org.au/content/transcripts/address-aeu-national-conference