Robert Oakeshott (Lyne, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to strongly endorse the Tax Laws Amendment (Education Refund) Bill 2008 and to put it on record that I believe that on the mid North Coast of New South Wales this will make a significant difference in many households within our region and therefore will make a significant difference in building a better Australia. In the year 2008 I do not think we can claim the title of the clever country, nor do I think that we in the region of the mid North Coast of New South Wales can claim the title of the clever coast. It is unfortunate, and I do think we have some substantial challenges before us with regard to increasing the investment and the value placed on education both for individuals within regions and within Australia and in communities in general.

I say that looking at some of the figures with regard to the challenges in education for Australia, and I concur that they are a mirror image of life on the mid North Coast—issues such as Australia struggling to lift school completion rates. By comparison, other OECD countries have managed to progressively improve school completion rates, but these rates have barely shifted in Australia over the past 15 years. A dimension of this is reflected in the fact that amongst 25- to 34-year-olds Australia now ranks 20th amongst the OECD countries in terms of school completion. That should be a stark reminder to everyone in this place of the challenges ahead. Some other figures that are reflected both Australia-wide and region-wide on the mid North Coast are that the ABS recently estimated that 46 per cent of adults, or seven million Australians, had poor or very poor skills across one or more of the five skill domains of prose literacy, document literacy, numeracy, problem solving and health literacy. This means that they did not attain the skill levels regarded by most experts as a suitable minimum for coping with the increasing and complex demands of modern life and work.

Early school leavers are especially likely to have lower levels of literacy and numeracy skills. They also have much more difficulty in changing jobs within a working life, something that all of us should recognise is happening more and more in the average working career. I also raise the issue of Australia’s total public spending on education, which, at 4.8 per cent of GDP, is below the OECD average of 5.4 per cent and well below countries such as the Scandinavian countries, France, New Zealand, the UK and the USA.

I think it is fair to say not only as the representative of a region like the mid-North Coast but also as a member of parliament contributing to the future of Australia that we have got some enormous challenges in front of us in lifting standards of education across the board. That is why I strongly endorse this legislation. I think it will make a difference on the ground in a number of different ways. I am particularly pleased to see that it provides a tax rebate of up to $750 per child for primary school families and of up to $1,500 per child for secondary school families.

I concur with what the member for Wakefield mentioned: the key part of this legislation is that it provides assistance for internet connections. I have just recently been through an election campaign. I walked into a house in what was a relatively urbanised community at North Haven on the mid-North Coast. I was surprised to find the family—which had a year 9 student at one of the local high schools, Camden Haven High School—on dial-up. That is technology which is at least 15 years off the pace. It makes it incredibly difficult for this young woman to compete in the education market and therefore to compete for jobs into the future. Compare her existence with the internet speeds which we have got in this building, for example. It is shameful that we have that inequity in places within Australia. I am particularly pleased that home internet connections are part of the tax refund and I will certainly be encouraging as many people within my region as possible to take that up.

The taxpayers who are entitled to the ETR include those in receipt of a family tax benefit part A payment for a child; taxpayers or their child who receive other payments that preclude them from receiving family tax benefit part A; or taxpayers who are independent students and receive payments such as youth allowance, disability support pension or Abstudy living allowance. The ETR will apply to eligible expenses incurred from 1 July this year and will be available when income tax returns are submitted. Therefore, the ETR will be claimable from 1 July 2009. I am just flagging these for my electorate. Some of the eligible expenses include the purchase, lease or hire-purchase of equipment, including computers and computer related equipment such as printers, disability aids and associated costs; as I mentioned before, a home internet connection; computer software; school textbooks and other paper based school learning material, including stationery; and course prescribed tools of trade. This is of great value to a lot of households within my region and, I suspect, right throughout Australia.

I have been in this job for seven weeks and I think that every second public comment I have made is in regard to education. I talked at length about skills based training and the importance of it on the mid-North Coast. I have some issues with regard to the future of Australian technical colleges in Port Macquarie and Taree and the role that TAFE and the school system play in delivering a better skills based training model for our region. I have talked about Indigenous education and participated in some very good and well attended Deadly Days throughout the region within the North Coast Institute of TAFE, and I have tried to get better Indigenous engagement in the delivery of education generally. I have just put my name down to go on the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Education and Training. I spoke at length during my first speech about the importance of education on the mid-North Coast and the motto that I want drive home to as many young people in my area as possible: ‘study for a job, study for a job, study for a job’.

I am doing this because I believe this is a critical factor in getting our region out of some entrenched disadvantage. This disadvantage sees our area as one of the lowest on income any way you look at it—whether it is individual income, household income or family income. We have very low education retention rates. We have very low post secondary education rates; therefore, to be honest, the challenges to lift the region certainly sound like the challenges of the nation. That is why I am really pleased to see this legislation come through the parliament. I will certainly be one promoting it far and wide and, hopefully, getting as many people on the mid-North Coast to benefit from a tax break from government as possible. I hope that we then see some assistance for better education standards for individuals, within the region and, by logical extension, within Australia.

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