Kelvin Thomson (Wills, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

In November last year the Council of Australian Governments agreed to a new framework for federal financial relations which provides a really first-class foundation for collaboration on policy development, service delivery and facilitating the implementation of economic and social reforms in areas of national importance. The Federal Financial Relations Bill 2009 is the legislative expression of this new framework, this brave new world. I am delighted to have the opportunity to speak to it and the related legislation. It appropriates funds to provide financial assistance to the states. Furthermore, it implements this government’s reforms to modernise federal financial relations in accordance with a new financial framework agreed by COAG in the Intergovernmental Agreement on Federal Financial Relations.

In agreeing to the new framework for federal financial relations the Commonwealth committed to the provision of ongoing financial support for the state’s service delivery efforts through general revenue assistance, including the ongoing provision of GST payments to be used by the states for any purpose; to national specific purpose payments to be spent in the key service delivery sectors; and to national partnership payments to support the delivery of specified outputs or projects to facilitate reforms or to reward those jurisdictions that deliver on nationally significant reforms.

The government has acted decisively to end the blame game with the states. This legislation enshrines in law new architecture for Commonwealth-state financial relations. The national specific purpose payments will support state service delivery in the areas of schools, early childhood, health, disabilities, vocational education and housing. In the area of schools, specific purpose payments will include funding of $18 billion that includes an additional $3.5 billion over five years. This is significant additional funding, and the member for Lindsay was quite right to refer to this government’s additional investments in education.

COAG’s previous agreement to a new form of payment known as the national partnership payment will fund specific projects, such as ‘smarter schools’, in the areas of quality teaching, low socioeconomic status school communities, literacy and numeracy. This new federal financial arrangement will underpin COAG’s efforts to address the underinvestment in education of recent years which has significantly constrained Australia’s productivity growth.

In the COAG communique of November regarding the productivity agenda, it was acknowledged that high-quality schooling is essential and central to Australia’s future prosperity and social cohesion. Back in 2003 the Chairman of the Productivity Commission, recognising the productivity miracle produced by the economic reforms of the Hawke and Keating governments, indicated that the best opportunities for improving productivity were by raising the performance and accessibility of our education and training systems, particularly given their importance in deepening Australia’s human capital, on which innovation and economic growth will increasingly depend. The Productivity Commission chairman indicated that it is not just about the level of investment in education but also about how efficiently it is used. The reforms agreed to by COAG, and outlined in the communique, recognised that ‘the way education and training is delivered is critical to driving our future productivity and increasing social inclusion’.

The new agreements for education and skills and workforce development set out reform directions, specific deliverables, roles and responsibilities. Under these agreements, the Commonwealth and the states will work in partnership to lift the quality of education and training and target resources to where they are most needed. This funding ensures that the states can allocate resources more flexibly while providing a set of definitive and measurable targets to provide the basis for accountability by governments to the community. The national agreements will contribute to outcomes such as:

• all children are engaged in, and benefiting from, schooling;
• young people are meeting basic literacy and numeracy standards, and overall levels of literacy and numeracy achievement are improving;
• Australian students excel by international standards;
• schooling promotes social inclusion and reduces the education disadvantage of children, especially Indigenous children; and
• young people make a successful transition from school to work and further study.

COAG agreed that the National Education Agreement is critical to achieving the target set by them early in 2008 to lift the year 12 or equivalent attainment rate to 90 per cent by 2020, to halve the gap for Indigenous students in reading, writing and numeracy within a decade, or to at least halve the gap for Indigenous students in year 12 or equivalent attainment by 2020.

The communique further outlined that the Commonwealth and states agreed to pursue further policy and reform directions through the National Education Agreement, focusing on improving school leader and teacher quality, including support for school principals, setting high standards and expectations for all students, boosting parental engagement in schooling, implementing integrated strategies for low socioeconomic status school communities, implementing modern teaching and learning environments, ensuring better directed resources, providing support to students with additional needs and reviewing funding and regulation across government and non-government school sectors.

Addressing educational disadvantage arising from low socioeconomic status through the COAG process is an important reform not only to raise GDP but to rectify what is an unacceptable imbalance. According to OECD research, students in the lowest socioeconomic quartile lag behind those in the highest socioeconomic quartile by 2½ years. New funding is intended to drive fundamental changes in these schools, including reforms to attract high-performing teachers and principals while also creating incentives for talented young teachers to work in these schools. The reforms will also have the flexibility to assist students through after-school study support, new sporting programs, strong networks with the local community and links with local businesses.

Present disadvantage in public schools is of great concern to me, and I think it should be of concern to everyone. Dr Bob Birrell of Monash University in a report he co-authored titled Unequal access to university places indicated that:

… in 2003 the proportion of Victorian Tertiary Admissions Centre (VTAC) applicants from Independent schools who received an offer for a university place in 2004 was 77 per cent compared with 55 per cent for Catholic school students and 46 per cent for Government school students.

The report continued:

The Government school sector is no longer serving as a ladder of educational opportunity for aspiring students from low socioeconomic areas. This includes schools that once provided opportunity for young people from South-east Asian and other non-English speaking backgrounds.

Within the metropolitan Government school sector for Victoria, there is a growing divergence in outcomes between the schools located in inner, eastern and southern locations, where academic performance is relatively good, and other metropolitan high schools, where academic performance, by comparison, is relatively poor.

I think that is a real problem. Even worse, the report says:

The academic performance of the lower performing Government schools deteriorated by comparison with the high academically performing Government schools and private sector schools over the decade from 1993 to 2003.

In terms of access to university, the government school sector is slipping behind its vigorous independent school competitors. At the same time, the advantages held by the independent sector in terms of government funding, resources and academic reputation are growing.

The increased popularity of the independent school sector has coincided with a rise in government funding at the federal level. It also comes at a time when competition for university entrance has intensified. Parents wanting to ensure their children gain entry to university have been withdrawing from the government sector in favour of the private sector.

The report goes on to say:

Government schools are the key to providing universal educational opportunity in Australia. Many families cannot afford a private sector education. If these people do not have the opportunity to access academically high performing government schools, the career options of their children are likely to be severely constrained.

and that is absolutely correct.

I mentioned earlier that the COAG agreement obliged the Commonwealth and the states to implement integrated strategies for low socioeconomic status school communities. This is of particular importance to my electorate. Over the last 20 years a real problem has developed in my electorate concerning secondary education opportunities. Last year the Christian Brothers announced that it would close the St Joseph’s secondary school campus in Pascoe Vale and North Melbourne by 2010. This was a bitter blow to parents of Catholic boys and it underscored a growing problem for Coburg and Pascoe Vale parents. They have a government school for girls—Pascoe Vale Girls High School—and a Catholic school for girls—Mercy College—which are both well regarded by parents. But there is no year 7 to year 12 government school for boys in Coburg or Pascoe Vale and there is no Catholic school for boys either.

An educational black hole has opened up and this is against a background of increasing numbers of children in Wills. The latest parliamentary library population change in Commonwealth electoral divisions report data indicates that Wills is experiencing a growth in the zero to four years age group, which jumped by 337 in one year, and in the five to 14 years age group, which increased by 113. A representative of the High School for Coburg group, Denis Matson, informs me that between 2001 and 2006 there was a 40 per cent increase in preschool enrolments in Coburg. Moreland had an increase of 232 babies in one year alone and has maintained birth figures at around 2,140 children since. There were 98 new preparatory students in 2009 compared with 2008—an increase of four per cent in just over one year. There were 2,575 preparatory students enrolled in local primary schools this year. This means we will have 2,575 grade 6 students looking for a high school in six years time.

Against this background, and the background of the impending closure of St Joseph’s, I was contacted by many residents expressing concern over secondary school options in Moreland. I therefore arranged a public forum to give local residents an opportunity to raise their concerns and to discuss options on how secondary education resources and infrastructure in my electorate can be improved. That forum was held on 18 February. It was extremely well attended by nearly 200 local residents, the member for Pascoe Vale, Christine Campbell, the Mayor of Moreland, Councillor Lambros Tapinos, other councillors, local school principals, Justin Mullaly—an Australian Education Union representative—and representatives from the High School for Coburg group.

Residents at the forum expressed a great deal of concern over secondary education options currently afforded to the local community. The forum produced a number of proposals which need to be the subject of further research and consideration. Some of those recommendations included: establishing a new secondary school for years 7 to 12 within the electorate; expanding the Moreland Senior College on Bell Street to cater for year 7 to year 12 students; the Victorian government to acquire the St Joseph’s college site in Pascoe Vale and establish a local secondary school on that site; investing significantly in existing local secondary schools, including Box Forest Secondary College, Fawkner Secondary College and Brunswick Secondary College to cater for increasing population demand and to lift standards and opportunities locally; and, finally, reviewing boundaries of local secondary schools based on school closures which have occurred since the last revision. I am establishing a working group to pursue these issues further. I also invite parents who share my concern about the need to improve secondary education in Wills to contribute any ideas or thoughts they have for lifting secondary education to me. My electorate officer, Anthony Cianflone, is the appropriate contact in this regard.

I do not think there is anything more important for our nation’s future than giving our young people a proper education. I would like to be able to say that everything that can be done is being done to provide quality secondary education in Wills: I cannot—more effort is needed. I have undertaken to do everything that I can to see that this changes. Children in Wills deserve nothing less. Furthermore, there is abundant evidence that more educated economies are wealthier economies. A nation that invests in education has a better economic growth rate. OECD research shows that if the average level of education of the working-age population were increased by one year, the economy would be three to six per cent larger and the growth rate of the economy would be up to one per cent higher. Access Economics has calculated that if the Australian workforce had just 0.15 years extra education and training we could increase productivity in the Australian economy by over 0.6 per cent.

A person with better education and training has longer workforce participation and greater adaptability within the workplace. Investment in education is not just about achieving economic goals. It is also about achieving better social inclusion outcomes and enhancing social capital. A strong commitment to education can contribute to higher levels of civic participation, improved social cohesion and improved integration. It contributes to a more equitable, more just, society. It assists with the development of important life skills and I am delighted that the Labor government is delivering on a strong commitment to invest in education. This government is providing national leadership. It is working cooperatively with the states and territories in developing school funding policies that address need and will deliver a better education system. I commend the bills to the House.

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