Julie Owens (Parramatta, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I was shocked last week to hear that, in spite of the public debate on education moving down a path about growing schools and lifting the standard of every school, the O'Farrell state government was planning savage cuts to education—in fact, some $67 million from the Catholic and independent schools across the state.

That is $24.5 million from Catholic schools and about $5.1 million from Catholic schools in Parramatta alone. Those cuts would be implemented from 1 January 2013, the beginning of the next school term.

I take this opportunity to urge the state government to rethink this. The Catholic and independent schools are very much part of our education system. In my electorate we have some fantastic public schools. Westmead Public is about as good as it gets and just across the road you have a delightful little school, Sacred Heart, a small school that serves a rather disadvantaged community. You have St Oliver's in Harris Park, perhaps one of the most ethnically diverse schools in the country. They are part of our community now and they are doing extraordinary work. The state government cuts have the potential to lead to increased school fees for parents, larger class sizes and the loss of teaching jobs. I am particularly worried about the impact on some of our smaller Catholic schools in the area. We are already hearing from parents who have been advised that the fees will rise next year by as much as $500.

These cuts are not just for the Catholic and independent sectors, although if you read the media recently you might think they were. The state education system is also up for cuts, but in the case of the state system the cuts are coming from the departmental staff whereas in the Catholic and independent school system they are coming from the frontline. The cuts that are coming are not the only ones we have seen from the state. A few months ago the O'Farrell government made some attacks on public schools when they raised the preschool fees from $5 per day at state schools to between $30 and $40 a day for some schools. That is from $5 to $40 for some schools, devastating to families, and it resulted in many families taking their children out of preschool. In New South Wales Barry O'Farrell has also cut 2,400 jobs from public schools and TAFE. He has cut funding from 272 special needs schools. He has axed a program to replace 5,000 demountable classrooms and promised 200 new literacy and numeracy teachers in schools by the end of this year but will only deliver 50.

Federally we have a Liberal coalition taking a slightly different tack and saying that it is the state schools that are overfunded and threatening the funding of our public education system. Back in 2010 they also announced that they would cut $1.1 billion from the trade training centres in schools; $642 million from Digital Education Revolution, which provides computers to schools; $425 million from the Smarter Schools Partnerships, which improve teacher quality; and $330 million from the Low Socioeconomic Status School Communities National Partnership, which provides funding for quite a few schools in my electorate both public and private which struggle with students from very disadvantaged backgrounds. Earlier this year they announced they would cut the $160 million reward for school improvement, the $50 million online diagnostic tools for parents and teachers, the $8 million program to help our kids understand finances and the last remaining $150 million from Building the Education Revolution. So education in this country is well and truly within the sights of the state Liberal government and the federal Liberal opposition.

When the federal Labor government undertook a review of schools funding under the guidance of Gonski, it was the first time in 40 years. We discovered the reasons why we really need to invest significantly more money in our schools, not less. We have slipped from equal second to seventh in reading. The average 15-year-old maths student in Australia is more than two years behind a 15-year-old in Shanghai—not two years behind a student in the United States, two years behind a student in Shanghai. If that does not make you think about how we need as a country to invest in our education to keep up with our near neighbours then nothing will. We have slipped from equal fifth to 13th in maths. This is not something we should accept and is something we should be working very hard to turn around. But even within our own community the gap in reading, maths, science and literacy between disadvantaged and advantaged students is equivalent to more than two years of schooling.

So, between the most advantaged and the most disadvantaged students, there is two years difference in maths, science and literacy—again, something we should not accept in our own community.

We have embraced the Gonski reviews. We have committed to lifting the standard in every school and they are significant commitments. Our plan is to make sure that Australia is in the top five countries in the world in reading and writing and maths by 2025 so that we regain a little bit of the position we held 10 years ago. We want to make sure every Australian school has the money it needs to do a great job, and that requires a serious review of the funding system. We have announced that the funding system will be based on a per student basis. There will be a benchmark amount per student based on the costs of schools that are already achieving great results, but there will be extra money, called loadings, for schools and students who need it most. That includes students from lower income families, Indigenous students, students with disabilities, rural and remote students, students at small schools and students with limited English. Together, the benchmarks amount for every student and loadings are called the schooling resource standard. We have a considerable amount of work to do with the states to implement this policy, but the loadings will be fully publicly funded at all schools so that every student who needs more help will be able to get it.

When you look at the findings of the Gonski review in terms of the way our schools are performing, you see that under our current arrangements similar schools with similar needs end up with really quite different amounts of funding. It is clear that both state and federal governments have to get together and find answers to this. The funding system is split between the state and the federal. A highly cynical person—and I am trying to avoid extreme cynicism today, but it is difficult—might think that perhaps the state Liberal government is withdrawing its funding in the hope that, as the Gonski reviews move forward, the federal government might move in to fill the gap. We know that over 100 years of Australia's history it is quite a common story that, when one tier of government decides to raise its funding level, another one backs out. I certainly hope that that is not the case and I certainly hope that the New South Wales Liberal government will reconsider what it is doing at the moment and get on board in a genuine discussion about the needs of our schools.

This is where we all should be at the moment. It concerns me that we should be talking about building our future education system and putting aside all of the past fights about public and state and Catholic and who gets what and working together to make sure that all of our children get a good education. In my community, one-third of the parents of school children are concerned about their ability to keep their child in the same school that they are in now next term. Now, in September, they are seriously having to look at where they are going to send their children to school in February next year. It is not a good position for those parents to be in and, when it comes to our policy development, it is not a good position for our community to be in. This is a time for us to work together to make sure that we get this right. This is a time to look to the future and consider the needs of every child. I strongly urge my colleagues in the state parliament and the Premier of New South Wales to get on board and make sure that every school is able to be a better school and make sure that every Australian child gets the education they deserve.

See this speech in context