Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

in reply—I thank the member for Oxley and all other members who have spoken in this debate on the Schools Assistance Bill 2008 and the Education Legislation Amendment Bill 2008. I particularly thank the member for Oxley for his personal assistance to me during the course of the debate.

The Rudd Labor government is committed to creating an education revolution. Our aim is to establish this country as one of the most highly educated and skilled nations in the world. Education not only drives productivity but also empowers individuals to reach their full potential and helps overcome disadvantage. The government has made substantial progress towards these aims with the 2008-09 budget delivering $19.3 billion in investments in education, cementing the government’s commitment to trade training centres, new digital technology and a national curriculum. The Schools Assistance Bill 2008 adds further significant investment to school education, whilst the Education Legislation Amendment Bill 2008 extends the Indigenous Education (Targeted Assistance) Act 2000 so that the government can continue to make supplementary investments to contribute towards closing the gaps between the outcomes for Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians.

I thank everyone who has spoken on this debate, from both sides of the House, for their participation and I note that the debate has been thorough and wide ranging. I think that the commitment of members to speaking in this debate reflects the central role that schooling plays in our nation and, consequently, the priority that members of this House—indeed of this parliament overall—attach to it. I will respond to the claims that have been made during this debate and reiterate why these bills presented together are an essential building block in our reform agenda. In doing so, I would also underline to the House the urgency of passing them. Schools and students need this legislation to pass before the end of 2008. Without the legislation, the Australian government is unable to make recurrent payments to non-government schools and systems for the school year beginning in January 2009. I cannot imagine that any member of the House would want non-government schools to start the next school year in a situation of uncertainty.

The Rudd Labor government has promised certainty and stability in school funding. We cannot leave these schools, students and families in a position of not knowing what might happen just because it might suit the opposition, or indeed other political parties in the Senate, to seek to delay passage of the bill. As the Independent Schools Council of Australia among others have recognised, it is urgent and imperative that this bill is passed in a timely way and that the various stakeholders work together constructively to pass it. They are wise words which should be considered by all members of this House and certainly by all members of the Senate. Scrutiny and transparency should, of course, always be respected in the parliamentary process, but delay for the sake of political point-scoring should not be a feature of that process.

The Schools Assistance Bill will appropriate an estimated $28 billion in Commonwealth funding for non-government schools over 2009-12, including supplementary assistance for Indigenous students, and will implement the government’s commitment to provide stability and certainty of funding. A further $779 million is estimated to be appropriated under the Indigenous Education (Targeted Assistance) Act 2000 through the Education Legislation Amendment Bill 2008. These bills have been introduced in parallel with the development of new financial arrangements being negotiated between the Commonwealth, state and territory governments through the Council of Australian Governments. They will be reflected in the national education agreement that we will complete later this year.

The COAG reform framework means that for the first time all governments in Australia will agree to a single set of objectives, outcomes, outputs and targets—and, hence, educational priorities and reform directions—for the school system. The Australian government considers that the COAG reform agenda must deliver real change in three core areas: it must raise the quality of teaching in our schools; it must help ensure all students benefit from schooling through strategies based on high expectations of attainment, education and transitions for every student, especially in disadvantaged school communities; and it must improve transparency and accountability of schools and school systems at all levels. These two bills are an essential step in delivering that change.

Before the 2007 election, we committed to improving transparency in Australian schooling through national testing, easy to understand reports for parents and public reporting on the performance of schools. A central feature of funding arrangements for 2009 to 2012 is therefore a simpler, stronger performance information and reporting framework for non-government schools which will be consistent with the conditions required of government schools under the national education agreement. This transparency framework will apply equally and consistently to non-government and government schools.

The requirements in this bill focus strongly on five features that are central to good reporting to parents, the community and government: national testing, national reports on the outcomes of schooling, provision of individual school information, reports to parents and publication of information by schools. This bill contains provisions to ensure that non-government schools receiving Commonwealth funding will provide a range of information in readily accessible formats which enable fair and transparent reporting. These are needed in order to give parents information about how their child and their school are doing to support them in making the right choice of school and in order to guide resources and policy decision making towards the greatest possible effectiveness and improvement.

Transparency about the income received from different sources is of obvious importance in understanding the effectiveness of individual schools and in treating all schools, government and non-government, consistently. There have been claims that the bill will require schools to publicly disclose every individual item of income. In fact, the bill makes it possible for income to be reported consistently by source in a way that will be compatible with the existing regulatory requirements to report to the department through a financial questionnaire. We are committed to reducing the regulatory burden on schools and we will examine, through the regulations and guidelines for this act, how we can ensure that the provision of information about income can be as efficient as possible.

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