Research to date has criticised the policy on education that evolved under a federal Labor government during the period 2007-2013. These analyses suggest that a global neoliberal agenda dominates, with the effect of constructing limited and damaging concepts of equity and social justice. The research presented here offers an alternative perspective. Rather than presenting global ideas as all pervasive in local contexts, this work indicates that alternative discourses to those of neoliberalism can be included during local policy creation. Critical discourse analysis of the texts related to the education policy created in 2008 reveals a number of discourses about schooling, standards, equity and social justice that go beyond neoliberalism. Broadening the existing interpretations of Labor's education policy of 2008 provides opportunities for researchers within the sociology of education and social justice to make constructive connections with policy in Australia.