Michael Ferguson (Bass, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Yes, just past Scottsdale. I was listening to the radio broadcast of the Prime Minister’s election campaign launch speech, in which he proposed a range of initiatives to boost and further strengthen education and vocational training in this country. I will never forget the excitement of hearing the announcement of, at that time, 24 new technical colleges for Australia, one of which was going to be based in Northern Tasmania, to address a shortage in the number of people available to the workforce in the skilled trades. We also heard on the broadcast news at that time of the new commitment—not a political promise, but a bankrolled commitment—for an extra $1 billion for schools. Any school teachers, school principals or, indeed, parents of children in schools in Northern Tasmania who were watching that broadcast on television or listening to it on the radio would have shared my excitement at hearing of all the extra resources that were going to be made available.

It is important to add that this bill also appropriates additional funding for non-government schools for 2007 and 2008. The amendment provides for additional funding for non-government schools under the capital grants program for 2008 and funding for national projects under the Literacy, Numeracy and Special Learning Needs Program for the same year. But I want to dwell on the Investing in Our Schools Program. I am really excited about this and I am genuinely pleased to see additional resources going to our schools.

As you would know, Mr Deputy Speaker Wilkie, I was a schoolteacher in secondary schools in Northern Tasmania. I will never forget having to teach in classrooms that were not heated. It was as ridiculous as this: I would go from my maths classroom to my science classroom to my IT lab carrying a 1,500-watt heater with me—along with my whiteboard markers, my chalk and my scientific calculator—which I had to put on in the classroom for me and the children. All the while, I wondered how long this ridiculous situation would last. I always took the view that it was not just my workplace environment that was inadequate and of an unacceptable standard but that, equally, it was the workplace of the students. While they may not have been in paid employment, during the hours of nine to three that was their workplace and they had a right and a reasonable expectation to have a decent standard of environment in which to learn and work.

The Investing in Our Schools Program has been a monumental success. Since the program began in this term of the Howard government, more than 6,000 state government schools have submitted close to 19,000 applications. In my electorate of Bass in Northern Tasmania alone, the interest in the take-up has been absolutely fantastic. But we do not need to exaggerate about these things; the facts bear them out. In round 1 alone, 17 government school projects were approved; in round 2, 18 projects; and in round 3, announced late last year, 26 projects were approved in Northern Tasmania.

Over the three rounds of Investing in Our Schools funding, 61 government schools in Northern Tasmania have received total funding approvals of $3.3 million. The program has also supported 10 non-government schools to the tune of half a million dollars, approved in a different method through the independent schools block grant authority. So 71 schools in Northern Tasmania are benefiting thousands—probably countless numbers—of students and parents and, indeed, the wider community. I think it is worth saying that these are, in the main, state government schools which have been neglected by state governments. It certainly is the case and, while it may sound like an easy call or a cheap shot, the fact remains that we are talking about state government schools, which are well and truly within the jurisdiction and responsibility of the state governments.

Unfortunately we tend increasingly now to be living in an age in which, when state government policy failures eventuate, those self-same state governments begin to point the finger at other levels of government. They look up; they look towards Canberra. If the state governments were to ask Canberra to take over responsibility for their schools, that would be an interesting discussion and a debate that I would be very willing to enter into. But we do not live in that environment. We live in an environment where the state governments want to retain control of those schools—to manage them and to fund them—but they do not want to fund them appropriately. They do not want to resource them in the way that they know they should. Rather than dealing with the problem and getting their own state budget priorities right, state Labor governments—certainly in the case of Tasmania but also around the country—are pointing the finger rather than taking responsibility.

Time today does not permit me to detail all of the worthy projects of which I have been speaking, but I want to mention a few that have been funded through the program, because I have had the great fortune of being closely related to very many of them. In particular I am delighted with Mowbray Heights Primary School. It is a school that I have a close affinity with. I often call it ‘the gold nugget’. That little school has benefited from more than $45,000 in direct funding—no middleman needed here—to improve its outside facilities and make shade structure improvements. Most recently I had the pleasure of going to that school with the Minister for Education, Science and Training, Julie Bishop, and we were able to inspect an additional improvement there: the new playground.

Also the fund has provided support to Summerdale Primary School for air conditioning and heating, some of the basics of life. Trevallyn Primary School has received $50,000 for a heating upgrade. Waverley Primary School, which is another terrific school, up on the hill east of Launceston, received a shade structure upgrade for $50,000, in addition to improvements for its general quadrangle. It was a delight for me to be able to visit there and launch that. We were also able to see improvements that have been undertaken at Flinders Island District High School. There was support there of $50,000, which they have used for general classroom refurbishments, including a brand-new carpet. One of the children when I visited there—just a small child—said to me how nice it was to be able to sit on the floor in more comfort.

It was also very exciting last year to be part of the improvements that are going on at Invermay Primary School. It was a very exciting initiative which we saw at that school. The local church community joined together with the business community in totally renovating that small local primary school at Invermay. Invermay is not a well-off area in comparison to others, and it was absolutely astonishing and very humbling for me to be able to witness the involvement of local church people and the Christian community, who were able to raise something of the order of a quarter of a million dollars of financial and in-kind support from their own resources and through the business community and its networks there. Then over a two-day period there was an intense blitz and every aspect of the school was renovated and refurbished. I was able to be there and roughed it with the rest of them. I made a fair fist of painting some of the classrooms. Invermay Primary School has also received funding, as part of the Commonwealth’s commitment to that school, for heating upgrades and general classroom improvements.

South George Town Primary School has received funding, along with Glen Dhu Primary School. Prospect High School has received a very much appreciated boost of $150,000, which is basically being used to improve the home arts area, which will have the additional purpose of providing the students with their catering needs. I was able to visit there with the then Minister for Education, Science and Training, Dr Brendan Nelson. It was a great day and it was very well appreciated. I know that as recently as late last year the school community felt so grateful for that opportunity.

By the way, Mr Deputy Speaker, the schools do not believe that the Commonwealth carries responsibility for these issues, but they are mature enough to recognise the political environment we have today, where state governments are simply failing to invest in our schools, and they just appreciate the extra support that they are getting. It has also been wonderful to see schools in Scottsdale, St Leonards and Youngtown gaining the benefits of being a part of this program.

So, if the results are so positive, why is this amendment bill required? The answer to that is very simple: this program has been a victim of its own outstanding success. I think it is quite well known that, in the early days, the government intended to roll out this program over, I think, a four-year period, over either four or five funding rounds. Due to the astonishing uptake—the great enthusiasm with which schools took up this program—over time that has been changed and readjusted. We find ourselves today in a situation where that billion dollars—$1,000 million—has all been invested in our schools.

I feel so proud to be part of a government that has taken this policy initiative upon itself and in just two short years has been able to provide $1 billion in support to our schools. The money has all gone. Some schools had not yet had the opportunity to apply for this funding that they were so looking forward to, and now they find that the funding has all gone. You can imagine how they feel, Mr Deputy Speaker. We find ourselves again in a situation where the state government has failed to top up that fund or to make a contribution to it, and the Howard government has faithfully stepped in with the extra funding that is required to give schools that have not been funded to a significant degree, or schools that have not been funded at all, a new opportunity to apply, with a reasonable expectation that they will be able to provide improved facilities for their young people.

I can recall, when the last funding round for Tasmania was announced late last year, the shared disappointment I felt with those schools that had missed out. It was at that point that I was very anxious to deal with this problem. I spoke at that time to the Minister for Education, Science and Training, Julie Bishop, about the need to extend this program beyond its three rounds. I also wrote to the minister. I also sent a copy of that letter, in good faith, to the schools who I felt had missed out and provided them with a hard copy of the representations that I had made on the matter.

Today in this public forum I say thank you to the minister for education for the role that she has played and I say thank you to the cabinet and indeed to the Prime Minister for showing the leadership that we needed to extend the life of this program, to assist more schools to gain a piece of the action—not so that they can have facilities which are out of this world or somehow a luxury; they are just getting their schools up to scratch. They are just providing a learning environment where young people can actually feel comfortable and not freeze.

My concern remains, though, that this fund will also run out and that there remains an enormous amount of need in many schools in Northern Tasmania which today have no real prospect of extra investment by Tasmania’s Lennon Labor government. It has refused all of my pleas to increase the capital works budget for schools. The Tasmanian government continues to place a very low priority on capital works—this is the built infrastructure of our schools. I strongly believe that we need to deliver on the needs and expectations of our school communities. That applies to all of us. I welcome the additional $181 million for this program, which consists of $127 million for state government schools and a smaller but fair pro rata amount of $54 million for non-government schools. I thank the government for that and I lay down the challenge today to my Labor colleagues who are in this place—somewhere; they do not really want to speak on this bill but I presume they are here somewhere—to pick up the phone to their Labor colleagues in the state governments around Australia to do one simple act: just match the increase. In their own schools in Tasmania and other states around Australia, just match what the Howard government is putting in.

Unfortunately, the flirtation between the Labor Party at the state level and the Australian Education Union has led to a very dishonest electoral campaign against the coalition government. It has been deliberately targeted to somehow create the impression in the community that our young people are missing out—it is because of the Howard government, they would have us believe. The facts are quite different. The reality is astonishingly different, because when one does the mathematics one finds that the Australian government’s 2006-07 budget increase to state government schools is 10.4 per cent. That is triple or four times inflation. The Tasmanian government’s present financial year budget increase for its own state government schools was a measly three per cent—3.2 per cent to be precise.

The mathematics of this are quite simple but they are nonetheless breathtaking. If the state government provided additional funding support to equal the Australian government’s increase—do not match the funds, just match the increase—it would mean an additional $46 million for Tasmanian schools. If it were to do that it would be commended, but until it does it stands condemned for its failure to act and its insistence on cheap, short-term politics—to point the finger at somebody else, to sheet the blame home to their political opponents, in this case, the Howard government. The government once again today stands on its fine record of supporting all of our schools, supporting parents in the choices they wish to make for their children and to provide facilities which provide the best opportunity for young people to learn and in the future to meet their potential in life. I stand today proud of this bill and what it represents. I call on all members to support it. I also challenge Labor members to clearly state their position on this matter rather than running away from debate. I thank the House.

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