Karen Harbutt, media specialist at the Australian Council for Educational Research, argues that Australia is approaching a rare convergence of conditions that could finally make transformational education reform possible. Drawing on evidence from PISA, TALIS and the OECD, she makes the case that declining student confidence, widening achievement gaps and growing anxiety about the future are not just warning signs — they are the pressure points that make change urgent and politically possible. At secondary school, only 18% of students strongly agree they are good learners. That statistic alone, she suggests, should be enough to generate the wave.