Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is good to see people turning up to hear this important speech. Obviously, education is something I am particularly passionate about and this educational transition bill is a part of the process towards changing Australia's education future; a future that is complemented by many of the other activities by this government—No. 1, obviously by doubling the education budget, especially the big part of that being that both sides of the chamber have been involved in, with the Building the Education Revolution component.

I have seen time and time again photographs of people from both sides of the chamber happy to acknowledge the contribution—albeit an economic program—to schools of the new facilities. I can go around Moreton and talk to school communities who were involved in decisions to bring in new school facilities; things like learning labs, new sets of classrooms, and school halls or performing arts halls. I have seen it at the Kuraby State School. I could list every single school in my electorate that has benefited from the BER program, but the doubling of the education budget is not only about an economic program; it is also about preparing Australia for a lift in educational standards. Sadly, we can look at state governments and we can look at national governments: the reality is educational standards have dropped in Australia in the last 20 years.

I finished teaching in 1997. It is sad to think that the students being educated now have educational standards, in some areas of disadvantage, that are two or three years below where they were 20 years ago. That is a shameful legacy for any government—irrespective of their political persuasion.

The Labor government saw that we needed to do more. As I said, the initial BER program was an economic program but then, look at the other reforms that we have brought in that I am very, very proud of when I talk to my teaching colleagues—I will be seeing a lot of them in a fortnight at a bit of a reunion. To be able to talk about a national curriculum—something that was too hard for this federation for 110 years, but now we have a national curriculum. When we look at improving teaching standards, when we look at reporting on the achievements of schools so that wherever you are in the country you can click on the web—if you are lucky enough to be connected to the web; obviously, when we roll out the National Broadband Network that will facilitate that because the NBN is not all about economic infrastructure; it is also about educational infrastructure—and as a parent or a student you can see how your school is performing by comparing like with like. Whether you are from a remote Western Australian school or a big inner-city school, you can make an assessment of where you are going.

The Australian Education (Consequential and Transitional Provisions) Bill 2013 and the Australian Education Bill 2012 government amendments are all about that rollout of educational improvements in terms of making sure that our commitment to Australian schooling provides a high-quality and equitable education for all students. That is in the Labor Party's DNA.

The government's response to the recommendations of the independent Review of the Funding for Schooling, which found—as everyone who has been lobbied by a Gonski parent, a Gonski-concerned citizen, a Gonski grandparent or the neighbour of a Gonski activist knows by now—that the previous school funding arrangements, or the current school funding arrangements, are not meeting the educational needs of all Australian children, particularly disadvantaged students. In every school, whether it be independent, Catholic or state—that is why people go into education so that we give as much advantage to students as possible. The amendments implement the National Plan for School Improvement, including new needs based funding arrangements for government and non-government schools from 1 January 2014.

Let's have a look at that. I stand here as a student who attended a Catholic primary school and a state high school, who has a child at a Catholic primary school and who taught in state schools and Catholic schools. I have also had a lot to do with Christian schools and other independent schools. I have a fair degree of background in education and I know the journey that Australian governments have made over the years from looking at the arguments about who should fund non-government schools—we go back a long time. In terms of the parliament getting it right, effectively, this Australian education bill is the pinnacle. It achieves what we are trying to do by moving funds and resources towards disadvantage.

The Commonwealth recurrent funding for schooling will now be delivered through fair and transparent needs based arrangements, providing new investment to support reforms that will help to improve each students' achievements at school. In the past we have seen the SES model, which was an idea that was flawed from the start by extracting the census collection district data from a parent then using that data to calculate whether the funds should flow to that school. We saw when the SES model was introduced that basically half the schools were funding maintained from the start. I understand that idea of making sure that schools do not lose a dollar, but when you have a system that effectively means half the schools are not in the system you know that you are not getting it right.

Under our new arrangements the participating schools will receive additional investment. Evidence based reforms will also be supported under the National Plan for School Improvement. We will look at the things that we know work—we have seen them work. You can go to the schools in my electorate that are national partnership schools. All we are effectively doing is rolling out that national partnership model on a national scale, to all 9,200 schools. Let us look at those things: quality teaching, quality learning, making sure the data that is produced is transparent and that there is accountability. We look at student needs and we also make sure that schools make decisions based on their community. Concerned parents working with professional educators and school staff are the best ones to make decisions for their environment, whether it be in Coolangatta or Cunnamulla or the cape.

Anywhere in Queensland, anywhere in Australia, local communities need to be involved and working with the educators. How will we do that? We will do it through a new schooling resource standard that will deliver a per student level of funding based on current funding levels for higher achieving efficient schools. So we will not be dealt that cruel blow that we saw in Queensland, where every single school had their funding cut under Campbell Newman. The reality there was every state school having their funding cut, combined with the Victorian and New South Wales cuts that I do not know as much about. Then, because the way they calculate funding allocations is based on how much goes towards a state government school, the funding cut to schools by Campbell and his Liberal cronies meant that every non-government school in Queensland received a consequential cut.

The funding cuts in Queensland were through things as simple as using a rounding-down capacity. Once upon a time you calculated the number of kids on day 8 of the school year, you came up with a number and if it worked out to be 23.8 teachers you got the resources associated with 23.8 teachers. But Campbell Newman, in a cruel blow at the start of this school year, rounded down so that instead of having 23.8 teachers you ended up with 23. If you are a big school you can perhaps accommodate a 0.8 reduction in staff. It has meant a lot of principals and members of the executive have gone back into the classroom, which is tough for them. Teaching colleagues of mine—people I have taught with in the past or that I know in my electorate—have had to go back into the classroom to plug this rounding-down gap. What we are doing now with the new schooling resource standard will abolish that because we will be able to give out funds according to the costs of helping a child overcome educational disadvantage, rather than using the reasonably arbitrary figures that have floated around in the evolution we have had over the last 40 or 50 years towards the correct funding model.

I see the Minister for School Education, Early Childhood and Youth is here. I did not see him at Nyanda State High School or at Yeronga State School, where I would have loved to have seen him. I wish he had been allowed to come and visit me at those schools. The kids there would have loved to have seen him. I would have loved to have taken him to Nyanda State High School, the school that the Newman government has flagged to close down, the school that produced Billy Thorpe and Lobby Loyde. How can you have a school that produced two musicians like that yet they are now talking about closing it down? That is a school I would have loved to have taken the minister to.

We know that no school will lose out under this model. We have committed that no school will lose a dollar per student under these new arrangements. Each year, every school authority will receive at least the per student funding level it received the previous year, plus indexation to cover real increases in costs. I heard today a Liberal National Party member say that Queensland schools are going to miss out under our Gonski model. I know that is not the case. The Liberal National Party member was misleading the House, as far as I was concerned. For a start we have a Premier who cut funds to every school in Queensland—and I am sure we will hear about the cuts to Victoria and New South Wales—and then there are those consequences when it comes to calculating what non-government schools in Queensland receive.

I am very proud of this legislation. I am proud to have been associated with this reform process of getting it right. Every school, from the richest school in Queensland to the poorest school in Queensland, can unpack this model, see that it is transparent, see that it is fair and see where the resources will flow to disadvantage. As a Queenslander, coming from the most decentralised state and from a little country town where the high school opened when I was in grade 8 and there were 12 people in year 12, I can say that the education I received was the only thing that gave me a decent chance in life. I understand how much it costs to get it right in a decentralised state like Queensland, because the reality is we have a lot of small schools, of little one-teacher schools, and we are changing with a moving population as the shearing population decreases and other industries are on the rise.

This Australian Education (Consequential and Transitional Provisions) Bill will usher in a new series of changes that I am particularly proud to be associated with. I particularly want to commend the education minister, Minister Garrett, who has been a regular visitor to my electorate on this topic. I thank him in particular for a storybook he donated to St Brendan's school. On the public record, I can pass on from the principal how much they appreciated that gesture. When he turned a certain age—I will leave it to him to inform the House how old——they appreciated him coming to the school, they sang 'Happy Birthday' to him and he responded by sending them a lovely storybook. I commend this legislation to the House and look forward to it rolling out throughout the nation.

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