Luke Hartsuyker (Cowper, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this matter of public importance. Yesterday the member for Lilley, the supreme rooster, led with his chin on issues relating to the economy. Today we have the member for Perth—that other rooster, that other cooped crusader—out here leading with his chin on education. Why do they keep setting themselves up on these issues when their record is so disgraceful?

Yesterday the member for Lilley tried to lecture us on Labor’s economic record—that coming from an opposition which, when it was in government, delivered $96 billion of government debt, double-digit unemployment and 17 per cent housing interest rates. Labor trashed the economy and they are trying to lecture us on it. It is the same with education. The member for Cunningham said that the government is critical of the state education system. What we are critical of is the failure by state governments, right around the country, to adequately support and resource the state schools that are under their control. The schools are the states’ responsibility, but the federal government has had to step in more and more, not because of any intrinsic problem with the state schools themselves but because of the lack of support from Labor governments. They put their hands on their hearts and say, ‘We’re all into public education as long as it doesn’t cost anything—as long as we don’t have to put any more money into it.’ Only then are they right behind public education. I think it is a disgrace.

The coalition government is doing the heavy lifting on education. We have provided $33 billion for all Australian schools for the period 2005-08, which is an increase of $12.1 billion over the previous four years. Since it came to office, the coalition has increased funding for state schools by some 118 per cent. Almost 90 per cent of state schools have benefited from the $700 million that the government has invested through Investing in Our Schools. State schools are primarily a state government responsibility, but the federal government has jumped in to make up for the neglect that our state governments have inflicted on schools that are their responsibility.

So far the government have spent some $656 million on 15,000 projects, thereby assisting 6,200 schools to provide computers, to build shade sails and playground areas, to make various areas of schools safe and to provide protection for our children from the weather. These types of responsibilities should have been discharged by our state governments, but we saw nothing but neglect from them.

In my electorate of Cowper, 56 schools have benefited from Investing in Our Schools to the tune of some $5.7 million and 171 different projects. These things are supposed to be done by the state governments, but it is the federal government that has been jumping into the breach. On the wider funding front, state governments increased their funding for schools in the 2006 budgets by a measly 4.9 per cent. The federal government has increased its spending by 11 per cent. If the state governments had matched the federal government’s increase in expenditure on education, there would have been an additional $1.4 billion available for investing in our schools.

The Australian government increased its investment in New South Wales schools by 10.7 per cent. The New South Wales government increased its spending by some 3.9 per cent, at a cost to our schools of $492 million. The federal government provided 12.3 per cent extra for Victoria. The Victorian government increased its spending by 4.3 per cent, at a cost to our schools of $403 million. The federal government provided a 10.9 per cent increase for Queensland; the Queensland government provided a six per cent increase. In South Australia, the federal government increased expenditure by 11.3 per cent; whereas the South Australian government increased its expenditure by a lousy 2.1 per cent. In the Northern Territory, the federal government increased its expenditure by 12.3 per cent, but the Northern Territory government actually took 0.4 per cent of the money away—they did not increase their spending; they took money away.

All the time we see state governments spending more money on bloated bureaucracies—as the Minister for Health and Ageing said, they are spending like a drunken sailor on public sector wages. But what is the public getting in return? It is certainly not getting better services, and it is certainly not getting an appropriate increase in expenditure on education. I mentioned in this parliament recently that the state government was going to take two classrooms away from a very fine little school at Lowanna, in my electorate. They were going to come in the middle of night and pinch two classrooms. They were going to take a classroom and the library. I hope they were going to give the kids time to get out of the classroom before they whipped it on the back of a truck and took it down the hill to some store yard in Sydney. The Labor state government is taking classrooms away from our schools.

Narranga public school is a very fine school with very dedicated, highly talented, hardworking staff. The school wants to expand into the areas of music and the dramatic arts and to provide a range of additional curriculum subjects. However, they are impeded because they do not have a hall. Will the state government give them a hall? No, to date they will not. When the Iemma government felt their backs against the wall, they announced policies in the lead-up to the election that will give halls to some of the bigger public schools. I hope that eventuates, but there is nothing on the horizon for Narranga Primary School so far. Let me dwell on Narranga school a little longer. Over the last 10 years, the Narranga P&C has raised $161,500—and good on them!—for school projects. Over the corresponding period, the state gave $51,358—about one-third. So $51,358 was provided by the state government and $161,500 raised by the P&C.

The member for Perth waxes lyrical about making maths and science a priority for future teachers and getting people involved in maths and science. He claims that reducing HECS will somehow dramatically increase the demand for maths and science courses—everybody will flow into maths; they will get interested in those subjects all of a sudden. You would think if he were embarking on what he called a revolution he would do a bit of research. He would investigate what the experts in the field are saying about the impact of HECS fees on maths and science.

In evidence given before the teacher training inquiry, Murdoch University pointed out that, for institutions with a large proportion of student load in teaching and nursing, capping HECS represented a significant impost. They also claimed that:

The reduction in HECS-based income for Education seems likely to lead inevitably to a conclusion that less University resources ought to be devoted to it, thus paradoxically turning what is recognised as a priority into a non-priority.

The Australian Council of Deans of Education said:

Quarantining Education from the variable HECS fees has not served the purpose for which it was designed. The Council has argued elsewhere that the awarding of national priority status has resulted in Education becoming a less attractive discipline within the university, due to its inability to raise extra funds. Moreover, this status ultimately works against the students for whom it was designed. Not only is Education unable to raise the resources required to support vanguard teaching and learning, but all students suffer if the status of Education is ultimately diminished within the university.

So there is no support from Murdoch University and there is no support from the Australian Council of Deans of Education for making less HECS revenue available to support maths and science. So I hope that the member for Perth does a bit of research before he embarks on such a profound revolution in education.

This government is investing in education. This government is investing in the future of this nation. This government has introduced measures such as the Australian technical college initiative, the Skills for the Future program, retraining older workers and providing for more engineers. We are doing a vast amount in this area. What we are seeing from Labor is just another rehashed policy, just another recycling of some of their earlier efforts. They really need to do their homework. They really need to do some thorough research before they embark on what they claim is a revolution. This government has the runs on the board in education. Labor is just playing catch-up.

See this speech in context