Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I will take the member's interjection, but what I say even includes Tasmania. The article continues:

Child psychologist Kimberley O'Brien also said the language of climate change should be "toned down".

Of course, the Minister for School Education, Early Childhood and Youth refuses to stop the teaching of Labor's climate science, despite moves in Britain for the subject to be withdrawn. But, then, this government also refused to stop the wasteful spending on school halls when it was plainly obvious to all and sundry it was a fiasco, a taxpayer rip-off in the order of a disgraceful $6 billion. At least the coalition's Investing in Our Schools program injected real and meaningful money into grateful schools—

Mr Lyons interjecting—

including in Tasmania. Funding is an important issue as far as education is concerned. Recently, the Director of Schools in the Catholic Education Office, Wagga Wagga, Mr Alan Bowyer, was moved to respond in a media statement to concerns that funding would be cut and media reports that funding would be cut by this Labor-Greens alliance. The statement reads:

In responding to enquiries from a number of media representatives, Mr Bowyer declared, "We believe that a fair, equitable and certain funding scheme for all schools is vital for the continued growth and expansion of quality learning and teaching for all Australian students and teachers".

That is something I am sure all people in this place would agree with. It continues:

"Our belief is that education is a basic entitlement and all students, whether they attend a Catholic, an independent or a state school, have the right to be funded by government at a level that provides a balanced, rigorous and properly resourced education", Mr Bowyer said. "No parent should be financially penalised as a result of choosing to send their children to Catholic schools in accordance with their religious beliefs and commitment to the Church".

I say: hear, hear!

Mr Bowyer stated that figures taken from the National Report on Schooling in Australia (2008) clearly indicate that Catholic schools and non-government schools in general, are under-funded when compared with state schools. "While a student in a state school, on average, in 2007-08 received $12,639 in funding from state and federal governments for the year, the figure for a Catholic school student was only $7,685. Productivity Commission figures in 2009 show that the amount for public school students was a little less – $11,874 per student while the amount per child in the independent sector remained steady", he said.

"School funding is a complex issue. State governments are the primary source of recurrent funding for schools and provide approximately 93% of public school costs but only about 17% of non-government schools costs. The Federal government provides top up assistance of approximately 7% to public schools and about 53% to non-government schools resulting in the need for non-government schools to charge school fees to address the gap. Catholic systemic schools endeavour to keep school fees as low as possible to ensure Catholic education is affordable for families, but school fees as such, only partly contribute to the funding gap between what is received from government sources and the true costs of schooling …

Mr Bowyer went on to reveal that 704,000 (20%) students attend Catholic schools across Australia, and stated that these schools employ 78,000 staff. He said that in 2010 in NSW, 66 per cent of students attended public schools, 22 per cent of students went to Catholic schools and 12 per cent attended independent schools.

"It should be remembered that many Catholic schools, which dominate the non-government school sector in terms of enrolments, serve disadvantaged communities made up of migrant and working-class families and those living in remote and rural Australia", Mr Bowyer said. "In some areas, the Catholic school is the only school serving the local community".

Mr Bowyer welcomed the opportunity that organisations had to make submissions to the Gonski Review and said he was reassured by the Prime Minister's promise that, "this is not about taking money away from schools" and that "no school will lose a dollar of funding, in the sense that their school budget per student will not reduce in dollar terms".

I certainly do hope that the Prime Minister lives up to those words; I certainly do hope that Labor does not listen to the Greens and cut or freeze Catholic school funding, because it is all about choice, and in Australia we should have that choice. If a parent wants to send their child to a Catholic school they should be able to do so, with the knowledge that that schoolchild will be funded properly and sufficiently so that they receive a good and fair education. There should be fair and equitable funding right across the school education system.

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