Bernie Ripoll (Oxley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is a great pleasure to be speaking on the Tax Laws Amendment (Education Refund) Bill 2008 because I think it is one of those great bills that come before the House that come from the bottom up. It is something that really has come from the people, it is something that they have wanted for a very long time and it is something that they have deserved for a very long time—some would say for more than a decade, and I would agree with them. It is finally being delivered here in this House under a Rudd Labor government.

It is has been interesting—and, I have to say, very informative—to listen to coalition speakers on this bill. While not too many of them volunteered to speak on something which I would have thought would have been key and instrumental in their electorates, it certainly has been informative. It appears to me that they only really have two arguments in relation to this bill. One is that it is just not quite ‘wide enough’, which seems to be the term they are using, and that we should include a few extra bits to hang off the bill. The other one is just the sheer disinformation or, I hazard to go a little bit further, perhaps mistruths that have been provided about what is contained in the bill.

I will try to shed some light for listeners on just what this bill is about and how much benefit it will have for parents right across the country—in every single electorate and in every single school. That should be something that the Liberal and National parties take note of. It is something which is at the core of what Labor does in terms of education policy. I can remember vividly over many election campaigns dating back quite some years a comment made to me by many parents. It was made by parents when I was out campaigning, doorknocking, on election day itself, just talking to my branch members or anywhere else—the old barbecue-stopper type conversations that you have. I recall they always said that there was one thing that would guarantee anybody a win when trying to get into government.

There are always lots of different views about what will guarantee you a win and there is lots of debate about it. But one thing that always sticks in my mind is that people would say to me: ‘If only the government could see its way clear to providing some sort of tax incentive or tax relief—some sort of offset—in terms of educational expenses for children.’ It stuck with me because that comment came from parents regardless of where their children went to school. It did not matter whether they were going to a government school or a non-government school; it seemed to be the same issue. They were content with where their children were going to school. They were happy in broad terms about systems. There are always improvements that can be made in a range of things but, in terms of their family budget and what government could do to give them some relief, parents always said to me: ‘Look, you’d make a real difference to us and our budgets if you could see your way clear to providing some sort of tax relief for education expenses for our children.’

I am pretty happy today to be speaking on this bill that actually delivers on a promise that we made during the election campaign and delivers, I think, very realistically in the budgets of ordinary, everyday working mums and dads and parents right across the country. It is a real pleasure. The Rudd government are committed to implementing an education revolution. It is something we have talked a lot about. More importantly, it is something we are doing a lot about and something that we are funding. It is something that we are more than just talking it; we are doing it and we are funding it. A key part of the education revolution is helping parents meet those everyday costs of their children’s education. That is what this bill is about, and that is why the budget included $4.4 billion to create the new education tax refund. That new education tax refund is, quite simply, payable at the end of the new financial year. That will be next year, so parents need to be collecting their receipts now and working on making sure they have all the required receipts and documentation to make a proper claim in next year’s tax returns.

The education tax refund is a refundable tax offset. It is 50 per cent of eligible education expenses for children undertaking primary and secondary school studies. Again, I want to note that it does not matter which school you go to. This is about all schools in Australia, both primary and secondary. What it will do is help about 1.3 million families across the country. That equals roughly 2.7 million students who will be eligible for this particular refund. Under the plan, eligible families will be able to claim 50 per cent of all eligible education expenses up to $750 for each child undertaking primary school to provide a maximum tax offset of around $375 per child per year. For children attending secondary school studies, families will be able to claim 50 per cent of their eligible expenses up to $1,500 per child to give a maximum tax offset of $750 per child per year.

That is a pretty good return and a pretty good offset. For the first time in Australia it provides parents with a real opportunity to offset all of their education expenses, not just the ones that are contained within this bill—and I will get to those in a minute—but all others as well. By enabling them to get an offset in the areas which are eligible, it frees up more of their money, more of their budget in the areas that they would have spent their money on, to spend in other areas for their children. So when we hear calls from coalition Liberal and National party members saying that it is just not wide enough, I think that they ought to have a second look and another think about just what this does. Quite simply, this puts cash back into the pockets of ordinary families, mums and dads, through the education tax rebate.

On the area of what those rebates and eligible expenses will be for, typically they will be for laptops, home computers, printers, paper, education software, textbooks and associated materials, trade tools and a range of other interlinked materials in those areas. I think that is pretty wide. I think that the scope of this bill is wide enough that parents could quite legitimately have a look at their expenses in terms of their children’s education and make a decent claim back in the next year’s tax return. It goes further than those things that you might immediately see as necessary for a child’s education: the laptop, the home computer, the printer, all the software included in helping provide for their education, paper and school textbooks. It goes just that little bit further, and it actually goes all the way back home where a family establishes and maintains a home internet connection. That is also included so parents can claim that as well.

So I did find it intriguing and a little bit informative when I heard Liberal and National party members standing up in here saying that the bill was not wide enough and talking about other areas that could have been included. I would challenge them to have a close look at the bill—and I suspect that many of them have not read it. While on the surface they might be providing some sort of cursory support, because obviously this is a very good idea for mums and dads out there trying to educate their children, they have not actually read the bill, they have not read the detail and, if they have, they have not understood just how wide and how comprehensive the bill is. Nor have they understood that it stretches right across those educational expenses for their children. In the case where there might be a particular expense which is not covered—and it is not 100 per cent coverage of all education expenses—but where they do have a tax offset, where they do save money, where they do get a return, the money that they have saved is money that they can spend on other areas of their children’s education. This is a huge bonus for parents trying to educate their children. So I am very proud to be able to say that the Rudd Labor government is delivering on its promises in terms of an education revolution not just in words but in good policy, sound policy, and with money on the table.

It does not stop there; there is more. While we want to do everything we can for parents at the coalface in terms of trying to return some cash to their pockets at the end of the financial year with this rebate, we have not stopped there. We want to ensure that a child’s education is catered for properly at the school level as well as at home. In the federal budget in May we announced measures that total more than $19 billion of new education funding—$19 billion! As I have said many times now, I am very proud to talk on these issues. We not only made an election commitment; we kept that election commitment, and we will continue to keep our election commitments and then we will fund them as well—something a little bit novel perhaps for people who are used to the past decade of policy delivery.

I will give a few examples. We have allocated $1.2 billion for the digital education revolution which will see all years 9 to 12 students have access to a school computer. Already there has been more than $116 million handed over to the states and territories and non-government school authorities to purchase more than 116,000 computers. There has been $2.5 billion set aside for trade training centres in secondary schools, and the government announced in July that 34 projects worth more than $90 million and involving almost 100 secondary schools had successfully applied for round 1.

I have got a really great story in my own electorate about how significant this funding is and just how far it has gone to create some new initiatives within schools. For the first time we are seeing out of this funding program a desire from government and non-government schools to talk together about ways they can pool those funds for trade training centres to deliver a better outcome for their students. In recent weeks I have met with five schools in my electorate, both government and non-government schools. They had got together and had a talk about how they could pool the resources that were being offered by the Australian government and whether they could build a trade training centre that would service all of their schools in that region. Obviously it is a fantastic idea. It is a great idea to be able to say that for the first time we have got a funding program through which schools can collaborate, not in the traditional way you might think a couple of non-government schools might work together or a couple of government schools might work together, but the sector coming together on the basis of providing better education for their students.

Some of the conversations I had with those school principals, I have got to say, were completely amazing and have absolutely left for dead the archaic debates of the past about government schools versus non-government schools. I could see for the first time that schools of whatever denomination wanted to work together. They were encouraged by the fact that the Australian federal government had encouraged them to work together through funding and they had a unique opportunity. It is an innovative way for schools to get together to pool their money and spend large amounts to achieve a better outcome for their kids. The sorts of comments that I got from the school principals were: ‘Wouldn’t it be great if our students could mix with students from other schools, government and non-government? Wouldn’t it be great if they could appreciate the different circumstances that people experience, if they could learn from each other? Wouldn’t it be great if teachers that may have only one educational experience could learn from another teacher having a different educational experience? And perhaps students could do the same thing.’ All the principals saw a great new advantage and ability for their students to grow and prosper out of this funding. So while it is a lot of money in total and represents quite a large sum, by the time you divide it, it is still a small amount of money for each school—between $500,000 and $1.5 million. But what it has meant for those schools is that if four or five different schools can pool that money they can build a first-class, first-rate facility where all of their students will get something much more than they had anticipated in the first place.

There is also a new $11 billion Education Investment Fund. That is going to help to renew our universities and vocational education institutions. There has been a great lack of spending and maintenance over a long period of time which has resulted in some of our higher education institutions actually falling into disrepair in some areas or not being able to cope with demand. We are facing a global crisis in financial terms and the impact of that will no doubt be felt right around the world. There will be some job losses and Australia will not be immune to that. People will be looking to re-educate themselves, to retrain. Young people have been coming into what has been a very strong jobs market and have automatically slipped into a job, almost commanding whatever salary they want. They will now probably have to think a little bit more about either extending their studies, getting into university, going to TAFE and doing a trade or perhaps looking for those skills that they may not have needed in previous years. So universities, vocational educational training institutions and TAFE colleges all need our support to make sure that we can cater for the long term, for the future of young people and people that need training.

We have also extended our investment through to a $530 million fund to help deliver universal access to early childhood education in the year before formal schooling. We believe that it is important to provide money not only during the school years but also in that pre-educational year, that year before formal schooling, and also after school when students go on to training, whether it is at university or elsewhere.

The Rudd Labor government is very committed through its policies in a range of key areas. There are three new national partnerships which I think are critical to all of this and to how it comes together between the Commonwealth and the states and territories. The first is raising the quality of teaching in our schools—again, in all of our schools. There should no longer be this debate about government and nongovernment. This is about raising the standard, raising the bar. In the end they are all our children and they should all have an equal opportunity to work hard, study hard and get a good job and further education if that is what they want.

We also want to help improve the results in disadvantaged school communities. You do not want to leave anyone behind—those most disadvantaged regional and rural areas where they struggle to get good teachers or where they struggle to get any teachers at all, areas where they just do not have the facilities regardless of the type of school. We need as a government to invest in those schools and in those areas.

We also need a new partnership in improving literacy and numeracy. At the core of everything we do there is an absolute critical need that we deliver on children’s ability to read, write and understand numbers. With that core they can achieve anything they want to achieve. But without those core skills they will struggle. I do not need to go into statistics for people to understand that. I think it is well understood by everybody that the very basis of our education system and opportunity is the ability to read and write and to understand numbers. I am proud to stand here to talk about a very important bill which delivers on the promises that Labor made during the campaign and continue to fund and maintain while in office. I commend the bill to the House.

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