Peter Garrett (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Minister for School Education, Early Childhood and Youth) Share this | Hansard source

This particular issue of cuts that have been promised by the coalition is germane to the Digital Education Revolution because the coalition themselves have a commitment to cut over $600 million from that program. The government is very proud of the delivery of Computers in Schools. Not only did we set ourselves the goal of a one to one ratio of delivery for students between years 9 to 12 but we have achieved that goal. More than 950,000 devices are being supplied to students, which is well above the national target of some 786,000.

The fact is that we promised we would bring schools into the digital age by providing enough computers for every senior high school student in the country and we have delivered on that promise. The current agreements end on 30 June, as the shadow minister should know, and we have made provisions in the budget to support new arrangements following consultations with states and territories and the non-government sector. That is entirely appropriate and the right way for us to go about managing the ongoing issues of computer access for kids in schools around Australia. I think the fact is that we have achieved a historic goal. We have put a computer in the hands of every Australian senior high school student. It is important now to recognise that the scheme was not intended to replace existing investments that were made by education authorities in new technologies; it was to provide a significant funding injection to level the playing field and bring all Australian schools into the 21st century and it is up to those who run the schools to keep them there.

I have established the Digital Education Advisory Group, a group of leading education and IT experts. They will provide us with advice on the next steps towards transforming teaching and learning through technology and I expect their strategy soon.

The shadow minister asked me about the Gonski review and the government's approach to the recommendations of Mr Gonski. We have said consistently that no school will lose a single dollar as a consequence of any recommendations that emerge from Mr Gonski and also that indexation will be part of any future model. I will make just one point to the shadow minister and the opposition: they have walked away from this important review. For the first time in nearly 40 years we have had an eminent panel consider closely the extremely critical question of funding for school education, and Mr Pyne, the shadow education spokesman, has completely walked away from it.

I am pleased to say that the remaining stakeholders in the education community have not walked away from it. We have participation by state governments and their officials, by the independent school sector and by a range of organisations with a genuine interest in the potential for funding reform in education, including the Australian Education Union, the Independent Education Union, the principals' councils and the parent councils. All of these organisations recognise it is in the best interests of our students that we have a funding model in this country that is fair, effective, transparent and does the job it is intended to do. We will continue to pursue the work that is underway on Gonski and there will be more to say about this later. (Time expired)

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