Darren Cheeseman (Corangamite, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

It was with a great deal of pleasure that last Friday, 7 September, I was invited to Oberon High School in the Belmont suburb in my electorate to meet with the principal, Timothy McMahon, AEU representative Leanne Salisbury, and teaching and support staff. We came together to have morning tea and to recognise the government's response to the Gonski review. I was very pleased that the teachers at that school passed a motion applauding the federal government and urging the Victorian government to also commit to increasing funding for public schools.

Our local schools need a number of things to enable them to operate at peak performance. We need to see student centred teaching; we need principals to have the resources to enable them to be flexible; we need access to modern facilities and technologies in schools to enable them to be innovative in the way they go about teaching; and, to be perfectly frank, they need the financial support to enable them to succeed. The level of funding available to schools certainly makes a dramatic difference to the opportunities that those students have. In order to best educate local students, teachers need support and ongoing training, and they need to be able to learn how to use new technologies and new methods in the classroom.

The Gonski review was the first real funding review that this country has undertaken since the Whitlam years. The Gonski review found that, in order for schools to excel, they need to have adequate funding to back up new programs targeted at their schools. The review suggested a new funding model whereby each school would have access to a base amount of funding per student and schools with particular needs would be supported with additional funding, particularly in recognition of students who have a disability or students who come from a low socio-economic background or perhaps students who come from homes where English is their second language. In total, the federal government has identified that governments collectively will need to put in an additional $6.5 billion to fully fund the new system.

The new national plan for schools will deliver a brand-new funding mechanism for local schools from 2014. The plan will include new ways of funding every school to guarantee all of our schools get access to the money required to enable them to do a better job in the classroom. Additional funding will be available to drive up standards by providing teachers with the necessary time and opportunity to access additional skills to ensure that they are best placed to do their jobs. Under the local reforms local principals and school communities will have a greater say on issues such as hiring staff and controlling their local budgets.

The debate around additional funding for local schools has only just begun. We will need to work in partnership with the states and territories to deliver this additional money, and we will need to work in partnership with Catholic and independent schools to ensure that they have at their disposal the resources to teach those communities. I take this opportunity to thank teachers at Oberon Secondary College and I look forward to continuing to work with them so that we have a fantastic education system. (Time expired)

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