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

I thank the member for Banks for his question. In the investment that the Gillard Labor government has provided in his electorate he can see some 107 projects benefiting 46 schools with seven libraries, 22 classrooms, and 5,000 computers delivered. And Riverwood Public School and Sir Joseph Banks High School being involved in the Smarter Schools National Partnerships.

And we continue that investment in schools around Australia because we know that the future prospects of Australian schools are dependent on the investment that they get and on the policies in place to lift education outcomes, support teachers in the classrooms and make sure that principals have got more opportunities and autonomy to lead their schools. And we understand that the link—the connection—between education and a strong economy and a fairer society is an absolute one. That is why we have a National Plan for School Improvement so that all kids can get a good education. Because if kids get a good education now then they get a good job in the future. And we want to put Australian schools in the world's top five. And under our plan all schools will see their funding rise; no school will see funding cut and no school will see funding frozen.

Is there a challenge to this particular commitment? Yes. We see what happens when the Liberal Party is in charge of education budgets—and nowhere more clearly than in New South Wales, where there has been $1.7 billion worth of cuts identified by Premier O'Farrell; 1,000 jobs to go; funding freezes for non-government schools; 800 job losses for TAFE; TAFE fees going up: cuts to the tune of $1.7 billion.

If we look across the landscape of coalition states and we see the same thing happening. What comes on the chopping block?—health and education. This is a taste of what is likely to come at the next election—certainly if the federal Liberal Party should prevail at that election. On top of the existing $2.8 billion in cuts that we have underway already, we also saw this weekend the member for Sturt, the shadow opposition spokesman, completely exposed on how he would grow school funding. Up to this point in time he has said that he would provide school funding increases to six per cent.

And now what he is saying is that he will only apply it to the level of the flawed funding model of the Howard government at 3.9 per cent under the AGSRC. So he has betrayed the non-government schools that he was promising would get a six per cent increase by going back on his word. And the impact of any coalition government in this place is not only to have $2.8 billion worth of cuts but to be committed to a funding system which would see funding for all schools go down over time.

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