Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

The Abbott government's decisions, since being elected, to underfund the education of our children will create a permanent underclass in this country. These decisions to underfund education at the national level will divide communities. These decisions to underfund education at the national level will increase inequity and unfairness. Labor, historically and today, remains and is the best party to look after education in this country.

This bill is consistent with Labor values. This bill constructively seeks to remedy the bad decisions—before too much damage is done to the educational opportunities of millions of Australian schoolchildren. The reasons why we put this bill forward are several. In part, we put this bill forward because our parliament has always taken an interest in education at the school level. In part, we put this bill forward because we already see the damage that some state jurisdictions are doing because they are not required to fund schools in the same manner in which the Commonwealth expects good state jurisdictions to do so.

This bill is also more urgently required than ever, because the budget brought down a fortnight ago is nothing short of a calamity and a disaster for Australian schoolchildren, for their parents and teachers, and for people who love education in this country. It is also the case that this bill should be passed by the House, because to do otherwise is to sell the future of this country short. And, most importantly perhaps, this bill should be passed because the finest minds in education, the many parents of Australian schoolchildren, and the hardworking teachers in our schools know that unless we fund education on a needs basis, we will create an underclass in this country.

Turning to the first of the reasons why this bill should be supported, and in moving this bill, we reject this latest argument of a promise-breaking and deceitful government: that somehow schools are not the responsibility in any fashion of the national government. I believe that most fair-minded Australians, when they watched the so-called Minister for Education—I would use that as a very loose term—and he said, 'It is not our responsibility to take a role in the schools of Australia.' We reject that abysmal rewriting of Australian political and education history. We acknowledge that the Constitution of Australia provides the states with a significant role and responsibility with regard to the schools of Australia. But there are many well recognised constitutional heads of power which allocate a responsibility to the federal government of Australia. Section 96 of our Constitution—and those faux conservatives on the other side who always believe in tradition seem to neglect actual constitutional history in this country—and other sections of our Constitution have been appropriately relied upon for many decades as the basis upon which the Commonwealth and the Commonwealth parliament take an interest in the schools and the children of Australia.

Indeed, this year is the 50th anniversary of a 1964 piece of legislation called the States Grants (Science Laboratories and Technical Training) Act. This was a decision by the Menzies Liberal government to provide capital grants for science laboratories and equipment in secondary schools.

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