Paul Neville (Hinkler, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Schools Assistance (Learning Together—Achievement Through Choice and Opportunity) Amendment Bill 2007, a bill I wholly endorse. I cannot in any way give any credence to the amendment that has been put by the member for Perth. I would say to the member for Banks, the previous speaker, that if he had read the bill carefully he would see that we certainly have not betrayed anyone. These were things that were neglected, particularly in state schools around this country. This program, as I will outline in my speech, is being fully expended. Not only is it being fully expended but there is another $180 million on top. How in heaven’s name is that betrayal?

The bill provides the funding amounts for capital infrastructure grants for government schools for 2007 and for non-government schools for the years 2007 and 2008. The grants are provided under the $1 billion Investing in Our Schools Program. This bill will allow the government to extend the program with an extra $181 million over the next 18 months. The bill is not cutting back on funding or changing the goalposts; it is putting more money into the system.

To date, 15,000 grants have been made to state schools around Australia. If 15,000 state schools in this country have to ask for funds to do essential works, there is a really serious problem in our state schools. That money is now up around $650 million for the state schools, while a further $210 million of the $300 million that has been allocated has gone to 2,000 projects in non-government schools.

Investing in Our Schools funding has been available to all Australian schools since 2005. In that year and in 2006, schools were able to apply for up to $150,000 to carry out relatively small infrastructure and equipment projects. The point I would make is that this is a great program. It is meant to take care of that area between what a P&C could reasonably do and what the state governments can do. P&Cs can raise perhaps $5,000 to $7,000, perhaps $10,000, and some of the ones in the bigger state schools in the capital cities might be able to raise $15,000 or $20,000; but by and large it would be up to about $10,000. Then there is state government funding—and I am not having a crack at the state governments in this respect; I do not think everything they have to do is easy. They have lists of priorities for every school, but some schools fall off the bottom of those lists every year, year after year after year. As the member for Ryan said, at the Ironside State School in a very nice suburb of Brisbane, St Lucia, they have been waiting a couple of decades to get the toilet block and changing room at the swimming pool fixed up. I would have thought that was a matter of hygiene and should have been done earlier. So we can pitch those grants in that middle ground, up to $150,000.

I think this program would have gone a lot further if the state governments had been doing their jobs. I know of one school where the principal has to almost totally renew the classroom furniture—in other words, all the desks; I am not sure about the chairs but certainly all the desks. I would have thought state governments had a fundamental responsibility to provide a desk, a chair, writing materials, a blackboard or a whiteboard, lighting and, at the very least, fans, shade for the kids, somewhere they can eat their lunch, and clean toilets. I would have thought those sorts of things were absolutely bottom-drawer, fundamental things that have to be done. But they have not been.

While I was listening to the member for Banks, I went through the list of projects funded under Investing in Our Schools in my electorate. It is quite instructive. Fifty-one projects got up in round 1, 24 in round 2 and 120 in round 3, for just under $7 million. There is a nice little school in the central part of my electorate called Yandaran State School. They have applied for 15 different pieces of equipment, although, admittedly, some are not big. But they have to apply for money to get their fencing fixed and to get some basic furniture, some shade structures, some playground equipment, more furniture, school ground improvements—15 different items. I have to ask a fundamental question: if the kids’ desks cannot be provided then what the hell is the state government doing? This program was not meant to take over the state government’s role; it was meant to fill gaps—and it was meant to fill those gaps in consultation with the school principals and the P&Cs. Relatively speaking, some of these schools would have been in a parlous state if the Investing in Our Schools Program had not been put in place to fund these capital works projects.

I represent a provincial seat with two major population centres and dozens of smaller towns which are fortunate to have their own schools, and with country areas where schools are quite often the centre of the community. The Monogorilby State School comes to mind; some of you have probably never heard of it. It is in the extreme south-west of my electorate, surrounded by the Chinchilla Shire and the electorate of Maranoa on three sides. This tiny little pocket has one state school in it. Just across the border, there is a sawmill called Allies Creek sawmill. It is miles from anywhere—a bastion of the bush, you would call it. There are about 20 kids there.

This program pretty well rejuvenated that school with information technology equipment, computers, shadecloth and other equipment for the school. The place is not only a learning centre for these children of remote areas; it is also the centre of the whole community. This revival through the program not only assisted in the better quality education of those children, it also provided a whole impetus for the community as well. The school, the sawmill and the Monogorilby hall are all that remain of the old community. Not even the old post office is open anymore.

I take a lot of pleasure in this program and I take a lot of notice of the P&C committees that have helped their principals put these projects together. Every week dedicated members of these P&Cs—some of whom are grandparents, I might add, not just parents—are out fundraising so that their schools can provide the basics for the children. I am talking about sporting equipment, playgrounds, buses for trips and in some instances—though I am ambivalent about this particular item—classroom furniture and in other cases renovated buildings. We cannot underestimate the importance of providing support and financial assistance for these schools. That is why the Investing in Our Schools Program is one of the most popular programs that the Commonwealth government has in its locker. I can say that unequivocally: it is the most popular program that I have come across in recent years.

Undoubtedly another point in its favour is the fact that the funding is provided directly from the Commonwealth to individual schools. Wherever possible, though some states have different rules on this, the idea is to try to get it to the principal and the P&Cs so that it is not siphoned off into some other state government project or loaded down with the bureaucracy of the state works department wanting to fiddle with it. It just goes directly to things that are needed in the school.

On that point, I am absolutely appalled that some state governments actually take a commission on this. They have not got anything to do with it. All they have to do is let the money come to these schools to make up for the shortfalls that they have allowed to occur in those schools. Yet some state governments—and I can name the Western Australian government—take 10 per cent. The Western Australian government takes 10 per cent of this money—for what good purpose? It is taking federal money out of the pockets of the kids and their schools, so to speak. It is taking federal money out of the pockets of the P&C, saying: ‘You could have done a bit more with this money but we want our 10 per cent commission. You guys can go out and raise a bit more.’ It is appalling, and it is about time it stopped.

I now want to return briefly to the theme I had before. So far in my electorate state schools have received $6.8 million under Investing in Our Schools and the non-government schools have received $4.6 million. This bill will allow the government to put a further $127 million into the state school bucket, so to speak, and $54 million into the non-government school bucket. As I said before, this is extending the program. It is not, as the member for Banks portrayed it, a betrayal but quite a substantial and generous top-up. By channelling these funds to state schools which have received smaller amounts—less than $100,000—we are making sure that every school gets a chance to get up to around that $100,000 if at all possible.

Some schools have not applied for it. Some schools are quite modest in their claims and have made them work. I went to a Catholic convent school at Gayndah and found that what they wanted for their kids was a multipurpose court so that tennis, basketball and netball could all be played in the confines of this multipurpose area. It was a fairly modest ask. That is why I also found it a bit disingenuous of the member for Banks to say that some of the principals have staged their funding over a number of periods. With the greatest respect, this was still in the sense that they had to be worthwhile projects, a competitive type of tender. Nowhere in the guidelines for this bill did we ever say that everyone was going to get everything they put up in every round. In fact some people did not and, if I might say so, I do not think that some projects were as worthy as they might have been and probably that is why those projects were dropped off.

We have copped some criticism because we have said that schools that have received $100,000 in the earlier rounds will not be eligible to receive more in the last round. Why is that? I will use my electorate as an example. I have got 20 schools there that have got between $106,000 and $143,000. They have done very nicely, those 20 schools. But I have got 37 other schools that have not had anything yet, so the extension of this program is very important to them and it is very important to those schools that have only made modest claims up until now. In the case of the private schools, largely by the hard work of the parents and the fees they pay, they are fairly well resourced and they will be limited to $75,000. If anything, there is a more generous test being applied to state schools than there is to private schools.

I recently wrote to schools in my electorate, informing them of the extra funding which would be made available this year, and the response I received was overwhelming. That tells me that in Queensland many of our state schools, particularly those located in state seats held by the coalition, are chronically underfunded and, in some instances, in a bad state of repair. This affects not only the students but the morale of the staff, the parents and, as I explained before, the local community.

I recall one country state school in my electorate—in fact I will name it: Mundubbera—which desperately wanted to install air conditioning for its students. We had given them a grant of around $100,000, from memory, but they needed Commonwealth funds not to put in the air conditioning that they applied for but because the basic electrical system in the school was of insufficient capacity to carry the air conditioning. The school will have to amend its plans and use part of the $100,000 Commonwealth funds to overhaul the whole electrical system. I return to my earlier premise: surely there are some responsibilities for state governments when it comes to this. Surely, things like a basic electrical system should be fundamental.

I heard of another instance where the P&C put it to one of the regional directors in Queensland—it is not one of mine; nevertheless the question was put—that they could not put their air conditioning into one school because, like this one I just named at Mundubbera, its power supply was not up to scratch. The comment was: ‘Well, get it out of your Commonwealth mates.’ I think that shows an appalling lack of consideration for the state schools that these state governments are charged with funding and keeping in good condition.

We talk about education and the Leader of the Opposition talks about the education revolution that he would like to undertake. He will want a much better vehicle than the current state governments, let me tell you. Since we have been in power, between 1996 and 2006-07, we have increased funding by 160 per cent. In other words, we have gone from $3.5 billion to $9.3 billion. Just a short-term comparison of funding breakdowns shows that for 2006-07 the Australian government boosted its funding to schools by an average of 11 per cent while the state governments increased their contributions by only 4.9 per cent. The states’ failure to match the Commonwealth’s commitment meant $1.4 billion was missing from the coffers of Australian state government schools. Again, that is an appalling indictment.

This bill also provides for an extra $11.7 million for non-government schools next year under the capital grants program. That is very important for non-government schools. This program is providing around $1.7 billion to schools between 2005 and 2008, and is in place to help with the cost of building, maintaining and refurbishing school infrastructure. This is an invaluable funding scheme for non-government schools, which so often rely upon the generosity of parents and the wider community to achieve their building projects.

I would like to salute those schools: St Luke’s, Bundaberg Christian College and Shalom College in Bundaberg, and Chanel College, St Stephen’s Lutheran College, Trinity College and the Baptist College in Gladstone. They are all very good schools, as are my state schools. Sometimes we are accused of being overgenerous to private schools at the expense of state schools. That is not the case. In fact, I can proudly say that the Tannum Sands State School, a relatively new state school in the suburb of Boyne Island-Tannum Sands, in Gladstone, is one of the best resourced schools I have seen in Australia. More Commonwealth money has gone into that than into any two private schools in my electorate put together. So let us have no more of this nonsense that the Commonwealth is indulging private schools. What we are looking for is equity and choice in education, and a fair go for kids. The Investing in Our Schools Program gives us that fair go, and it is about time the state governments became more responsible and did not act in a mealy-mouthed way, taking as much as 10 per cent off some of these grants. I commend this bill to the House and I oppose the amendment.

See this speech in context