Bruce Baird (Cook, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise in support of the Schools Assistance (Learning Together—Achievement Through Choice and Opportunity) Amendment Bill 2007. I think that all members of this House would very much welcome this program. It certainly has meant a significant difference to schools across Australia, particularly in my electorate of Cook. It was well received by the school principals, students and, of course, parents and P&Cs. Very often it is a monument to the fact that the education departments and the governments in the various states have failed to carry out the role that they should have.

Think of the article in today’s Herald, which outlines toilets in some schools that have been blocked for 10 years because they simply have not put the funds required into this program. Think of the many schools in my electorate that have been neglected for years. Some of them have not been touched for about 20 years. The only exception, of course, is if it is a marginal seat—then watch the funding go. I have the marginal seat of Miranda in my electorate. Hundreds of thousands of dollars—millions—have been spent on schools in that electorate while the one alongside gets hardly anything because it is not marginal and they do not care.

When you see the schools full of demountables, plumbing that does not work, inadequate facilities, poor maintenance, a lack of computers to assist students, a lack of musical and sporting equipment, lack of shadecloth and coverage you understand why it was necessary for the federal government to become involved in this program. It is not an area that we should naturally be in, considering the very significant increase in the amount of GST funding to the states. But, nevertheless, we are, and I know that schools across Australia are very grateful that this has happened.

In my electorate of Cook we have received $3.1 million for all rounds. This includes funding for Cronulla South Public School, Grays Point Public School, Gymea High School, Kareela Public School, Kirrawee Public School, Miranda North Public School, Miranda Public School, Sylvania Public School and Woolooware Public School. They are all very grateful for the assistance that they have received. By extending the funding of the Investing in Our Schools Program to a total of $1.2 billion, the government is demonstrating its commitment to education in this country.

We have an outstanding Minister for Education, Science and Training in this government. She is doing her best to deliver not only quality education and appropriate standards across the country but also the infrastructure and the physical facilities so necessary in the schools. We have provided new library books, musical instruments, play equipment and computers to hundreds of thousands of students around Australia. We have also provided urgently needed repairs and upgrades to infrastructure, again highlighting the state governments’ chronic neglect of their own government schools.

This bill provides an additional $181 million to the final round of the Investing in Our Schools Program. Of this, $127 million is earmarked for a final funding round for state government schools in 2007 while a further $54 million is for non-government schools for the year 2007-08. This funding is specifically intended for schools that have received little or no previous funding under the program.

The $1.2 billion spent on Investing in Our Schools from 2005 to 2008 represents a massive capital injection into educational infrastructure. When considered alongside the $1.7 billion spent on the Capital Grants Program over the same period, total Australian government spending on school infrastructure comes to $2.9 billion. That is an impressive level of commitment to teachers, parents and, most importantly, school students.

The members in my electorate are very enthusiastic about the program. It has allowed students to access equipment that would otherwise be beyond their reach. It has allowed teachers to incorporate learning tools in their classrooms that have, until now, been unaffordable in the school’s budget. It has given several principals in my electorate a chance to repair and upgrade basic infrastructure that has been left to fall into disrepair by the New South Wales government. Obviously this is a state responsibility, and yet we certainly have seen it neglected right across the country. Investing in Our Schools has gone some way to addressing this neglect by providing the Australian government with the direct ability to respond actively to situations where there is a clear need for resources and where chronic neglect is occurring in state government schools.

Last November I unveiled a new showcase computer room at Gymea Technology High School, an approved project under round 1 of Investing in Our Schools. This showcase computer room is filled with state-of-the-art equipment suitable for students studying industrial technology, multimedia and software design in their HSC year. I was shown examples of student work in this class and I was most impressed. The principal, John Bedwell, is doing a great job at that school. He was involved in wanting technology outcomes for his students. Equipment like this showcase computer room helps to make these outcomes reality and this is why schools in my electorate are such big supporters of the program.

In another example, in December last year I went to Grays Point Public School to officially launch $40,000 of new laptops funded under round 1 of Investing in Our Schools. These students were able to research on the internet as a class for a project they were doing on international aid to Africa, an area of policy in which I maintain a very close interest. It was fantastic to see this computer equipment at the disposal of these year 5 students, and I am told that these laptops are now being used by students in year 2 right through to year 6.

Grays Point Public School used an additional amount of $24,000, allocated under Investing in Our Schools, to install a rainwater tank system for their toilet block. I commend the principal, Phil Rouland, for such a forward-thinking approach and such an environmentally considerate use of funding that was available to them. Now Grays Point public are flushing their toilets with rainwater and helping to do their bit in light of Sydney’s water crisis.

From my observations at a local level, the Investing in Our Schools Program is doing more than just injecting much-needed money into capital projects. It is also developing a very significant culture in school communities, allowing greater involvement for parents and friends and teachers and all members of the school community in developing priorities for their school’s infrastructure needs. I am very pleased with this trend. It takes an inclusive approach to involve the parents, friends and students.

In addition to the bill’s provisions to extend funding for the Investing in Our Schools Program, there is also the additional amount for the Capital Grants Program. The Capital Grants Program is providing large-scale infrastructure projects for schools. As I mentioned earlier, a total of $1.7 billion has been allocated under this program from 2005 to 2008. There has already been $1.2 billion of this money allocated to state government schools and an estimated $495 million will be provided to Catholic and independent schools in the same funding period.

Again the primary responsibility for schools’ capital works and maintenance of school facilities is held by state and territory governments, but they continue to not provide and deliver. One school in my electorate has been very fortunate under the Capital Grants Program. Caringbah High School received funding of $6.9 million from the Australian government to completely rebuild and relocate their main school campus.

I have been down to Caringbah high. Caringbah high is an outstanding selective school in my area. It achieves amongst the top results in the state at HSC time. I observed at this school a massive crack running from one end to the other. The building has been so poorly kept there was no saving the whole structure. It is a very large investment in Caringbah High School—$6.9 million—and I am sure the students, parents and teachers at the school will benefit greatly from the new facilities when they are completed. Across New South Wales, the Australian government has provided $96.4 million to public schools in 2007 alone.

In light of the current election campaign in full swing in New South Wales, I think it is fairly appropriate to reflect on these funding levels. Despite very significant support from the Commonwealth in recent years, the New South Wales government has failed abysmally to provide for its own schools. I have one school in my electorate, Burraneer Bay Public School, that was provided with a major amount of funding from the federal government under the Capital Works Program. Again it is waiting for matching funds from the state government, and they have not been delivered. The school is full of demountables.

The fact that it is in what is seen as a safe Liberal seat is why they have not given it priority. If it were in the seat held by Barry Collier, the member for Miranda, it would be an entirely different story. I am sure we all expect politics to be involved at some point, but the blatant use of it so that some students are advantaged and others significantly disadvantaged is totally unacceptable and smacks of a Third World country rather than a modern democratic country. The outline in today’s Sydney Morning Herald of the chronic problems across the state is significant. The most shameless part of it all is how the Iemma government try to blame the Australian government for their problems. They try to divert attention from their abject failure to deliver basic school services and to meet school maintenance and capital works needs.

I thank the Prime Minister and the Treasurer for their support for the program, as well as the Minister for Education, Science and Training, who does an outstanding job in her portfolio. I wholeheartedly support the intentions of this bill. I am sure we all are very pleased with the amount of funding that the schools in each of our electorates receive through the program. It has certainly changed significantly the aspirations of many schools in my area. The school communities have come together and the P&Cs work effectively. When the results are announced, it is like Christmas Day. You phone up the schools and they say: ‘I’ve been waiting for this for so long. This is going to make such a difference to the school. You couldn’t have given me a better present. We’re all going to be thrilled. We’re all going to celebrate this.’

This should be happening automatically. It is not as if we are in some broken-down Third World country; this is modern Australia. The level of GST funding going to the states has been at an all-time high. In terms of the funding they have received, they should be investing in the schools themselves. It is the federal government who has come in and provided this round of funding to the tune of $1.2 billion. I am sure we all support the program. We lament the fact that state education departments are not fulfilling the role that has been required of them. We look forward to further opportunities to see a rollout of funding to support the level of education for our children. It is so important for our future.

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