Nicola Roxon (Gellibrand, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Health) Share this | Hansard source

In speaking in the grievance debate today, I want to take the opportunity to talk about an issue that is very important to my electorate of Gellibrand, and that is education and the importance of investing in education. I have some great schools in my electorate, and I know that there are very many families who are very happy with the strong public school presence in my electorate. We also have some great Catholic schools, and we are a little bit light on for any independent schools. There is one school, Westbourne, which has its junior school in my electorate but its secondary school outside my electorate—although, as in other electorates, many students do travel outside the electorate for their schooling. We have Victoria University, which provides top-class TAFE and university education. It is one of the few universities that still cover both those sectors within our community.

But we still face a huge challenge within my electorate. We have very high rates of poverty and we have large numbers of new arrivals coming—at the moment mostly from the Horn of Africa, but we have over many years been the first port of call for many of the new communities. They often have real difficulties in learning the language and adjusting to the education system in a new country. We also have lots of young families moving to my electorate, where housing is still slightly more affordable than in some other parts of Melbourne—although that is fast changing as the inner-city nature of my electorate is becoming more and more apparent to those canny house buyers, and the prices are going up in many areas.

The reason I want to particularly raise this issue and give that little bit of background is that we have, for example in the City of Maribyrnong, unemployment which is currently still at 8.3 per cent—far higher than the national average. Whilst it is good news generally across the community if the unemployment rate is going down, for those of us who live in areas which represent a much higher proportion of those who have not shared in the benefits of the country’s booming economy, we need to make sure we are keeping these issues on the agenda. At the 2001 census, 12.7 per cent of children in my electorate were living in poverty. This is a pretty devastating figure and, if we do not address investing in our young children and supporting families who are bringing up children, we will never be able to get them out of that cycle of disadvantage. The suburb of Braybrook in my electorate has been identified as one of the 10 most disadvantaged suburbs in Australia.

Looking at the educational levels in my electorate, 55 per cent of people who are 15 and above have no trade or tertiary qualification, and 33 per cent of people who are of working age have no qualification above year 10. Many of these people are contributing successfully within our community, of course, but we know that the pressures are becoming greater and greater, and for young people who are seeking to get into the workforce, if they do not have a trade or tertiary qualification—or if they do not have any qualifications or support beyond year 10—it is becoming increasingly difficult for them to be employed. We need to look at the ways we are investing in our education system to keep those children engaged, to give them support and to make sure that they—similarly to those living in many other electorates across Melbourne—are given the opportunity to go on to further education if that is what they are interested in doing.

Unfortunately, the Howard government has continually failed to invest in these sorts of issues. It has continually failed to see support for education as one of the fundamental weapons in tackling disadvantage. The government has left Australia lagging behind 17 other OECD countries in investment in education, so we need a concerted effort and a commitment to education to improve retention rates in high school, to provide opportunities for lifelong learning, and to help lift productivity for the entire community. I particularly want to speak about this, because Labor’s plans for an education revolution will improve education and employment opportunities for my constituents and address the critical economic issues of productivity and the skills crisis. In short, it is going to help individuals in my electorate but it is also going to help the nation. Each and every step in Labor’s plan for an education revolution is going to benefit schools and students in my electorate.

Labor’s plan starts at the beginning of the age category, where we have made a commitment to provide early childhood education to give all four-year-olds access to 15 hours per week of early education for 40 weeks a year. We know that this sort of education lays the foundations for future learning, we know that children at that age learn very well through play and we know that this is a way to have children school-ready when they start their more formal education.

The Howard government has neglected this crucial stage in education and development. Australia spends just 0.1 per cent of GDP on early childhood education, while the OECD average is nearly five times that amount. This is a critical issue in my electorate because it will not only provide welcome support for preschool; there are also many families who are seeking formal child care for their children so that they can receive the stimulus, ability and support to learn through play. In the city of Maribyrnong alone, there are 700 families on the council waiting list, looking for child care. In addition to supporting extra preschool places for children, our plans to build 260 new childcare centres co-located with schools in areas of need will also help to ease this burden. We are going to benefit in my electorate—as across the country—by encouraging young Australians to study and teach maths and science, and we will also benefit from Labor’s commitments around the national curriculum.

Another issue that I particularly want to focus on is our commitment to local schools working together. Labor has committed $62.5 million for 25 pilot projects that encourage government, independent and Catholic schools to share important educational facilities like science and language laboratories. I would like to put on the record my view that a number of the Catholic and public schools in my electorate could benefit very much from this policy, and I hope that, if we are elected, my electorate will be considered for one of these pilot programs. The Caroline Chisholm Catholic College and the Braybrook Secondary College are within walking distance of each other, as are St Paul’s Catholic College and Bayside Secondary College, which are both in Altona North. All four of those schools could benefit significantly if they were able to invest in new facilities that could be shared. I am sure that all four have working relationships that would enable that to be done in a way that serves their common goals and that it would be very successful for the students attending those schools. We already have examples of many of our schools working together locally. For example, two local primary schools are pooling their resources to establish a kitchen garden program. The schools at Altona Meadows and Altona Green are sharing knowledge, volunteers and teaching resources to set up this joint initiative, with funding from the Victorian state government. But, obviously, for this to continue to be successful there will need to be cooperation between the schools and the support of the community and the government.

Labor’s commitment to a healthy kids check for all children starting primary school will ensure that, after having had support during those additional preschool hours—learning through play and development—a child’s health and development will be checked to identify whether there is anything that might hold up their learning when they start school, so that parents and families will be able to get some assistance to tackle any problems which, if not identified early, can cause learning problems later in life.

Labor is also committed to a national action plan for literacy and numeracy—again, a particularly important strategy for my electorate. Many people across the country struggle with literacy and numeracy. It is an enormous factor for young people leaving school early or not achieving to the levels that they could. Labor’s strategy is particularly important for the many children in my electorate who come from the refugee communities and for whom becoming literate in another language—often without any formal education in their countries of origin, which may have been war torn, or in refugee camps and elsewhere—is difficult. We need to make sure that there is additional assistance given to schools like those in my region to assist with the literacy and numeracy projects that would make a big difference to these kids.

I want to conclude by speaking about Labor’s commitment to establish trade training centres in all secondary schools around the country. This initiative will allow schools to provide state-of-the-art workshops, labs and trade training facilities. Schools in my electorate—Williamstown High School, Caroline Chisholm Catholic College, Braybrook Secondary College, Bayside Secondary College, Footscray City, St Paul’s Secondary College, Maribyrnong Secondary, Westbourne, Mount St Joseph’s Girls and Gilmore Girls College—will all stand to benefit from this commitment made by Labor. I think it will be of great benefit and will help to keep many more students in school. It will enable students to study the range of courses that they are interested in. It will give them the benefit of a full secondary school education and, hopefully, will improve their opportunities to become gainfully employed or to go on to further education when they complete their secondary education. (Time expired)

See this speech in context