In the lead up to the November state election, Victoria's Opposition Leader Matthew Guy is putting education on the agenda.
"About time we had a discussion around values in our education system, it's one that I think is overdue."
The Liberal Nationals Education Values Statement released this week says schools are failing to teach what they term "Australian values".
The document says key events in Europe and North America that underpin our national institutions are largely ignored.
Senior research fellow at the Centre for Independent Studies, Dr Jennifer Buckingham, would be engaged to review the curriculum to address these gaps.
At a press conference to release the document, Mr Guy struggled to name which values were being overlooked and how that would be rectified in the classroom without adding to the workload.
"We're not talking about putting in new subjects around values, I think there's some very different things, whether it's celebrating national days or national institutes which schools do now at assemblies, I've been to my own son's assemblies where they do these things."
The Shadow Education Minister Tim Smith pointed to a poor understanding of the country's democracy and laws, making reference to African youth gangs.
"We highlight the fact that a working knowledge of democracy is important, understanding respect for the law, respect for others, government by consent, the way that our democracy operates."
"I think, particularly in the current situation here in Victoria where you've got young people clearly not respecting the law and indeed other citizens, I would have thought that area of study should be highlighted and be improved in terms of the knowledge being imparted on young people."
Senior education lecturer at Monash University David Zyngier says the party's approach was unhelpful.
"I think it's kind of like dog whistling and pretending that we actually are a value free zone. It's just another straw person that the LNP are putting up to encourage school choice away from public schools."
