Andrew Nikolic (Bass, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Deputy Speaker. I look forward to talking about the Australian Education Amendment Bill 2014 because there have been some important issues raised. As we saw from the member for Adelaide's contribution, the vast majority of her time was devoted to having a crack at the government, instead of addressing the very important issues in this bill.

It does give me great pleasure to make a contribution on this bill. As I have said on more than one occasion, from a purely domestic or national perspective, there are few, if any, issues as important or as potentially inflammatory as education policy. Regrettably, too often, despite the best intentions of any government, this subject tends to become a political football. For obvious reasons, passions and emotions are easily aroused when wrestling with issues that impact the lives and wellbeing of our fellow Australians. As a proud representative of northern Tasmania, I am keenly aware of the usually linear relationship which exists between education, employment, future and fortune. And, I have no doubt, that such a sentiment places me in good company with many, and perhaps even a majority, on both sides of the House.

We heard at the end of the member for Adelaide's contribution that she was in fact supporting the bill—and I welcome that bipartisan spirit. This amendment bill reflects the very best domestic intentions of the present government. By, and through it, we seek to implement and enact key steps which, if given the opportunity to work, will significantly improve the lives and livelihood of some members of Australia's most disadvantaged and struggling communities. For them, it potentially represents, a life-changing opportunity. Regrettably, Indigenous Australians are a part of our society whose educational standards and attainments have, in the main, lagged and fallen increasingly behind that of wider and mainstream Australia. I acknowledge that this drift has occurred 'on the watch' of successive governments of both persuasions over more than a generation. This government will do whatever it can to arrest this downward spiral to continuing intergenerational poverty. This includes constructive Indigenous educational reform.

Over the long term, any nation which undervalues or fails to invest in education, particularly at the foundation or school level, will eventually incur a severe penalty. This may start as an initially and almost barely perceptible drift from the forefront of national productivity and/or international relevance. Thereafter, the pace of educational decline and concordant social and economic malaise and disharmony will tend to quicken over time, with obvious bleak and all-too-predictable outcomes. Once begun, such a diminution in educational talent or standards on any level—individual, community, state or national—is disproportionately difficult to turn around. The government is exceedingly conscious of such perils, particularly amongst elements of the already disadvantaged.

Most importantly, the government retains a strong commitment to, and preference for, genuine tripartisan negotiation with all members of both the opposition and crossbench towards the passage of this important social amendment. Despite some views to the contrary, ours remains a generous spirit of compromise, negotiation and even consensus, which extends to all quarters of this chamber.

Passage of this bill is, indisputably, in the longer term interest of all Australians—not just those who are Indigenous, or who have children or grandchildren, or those who are themselves affected students who stand to benefit significantly from it. Indeed, the bounty of foundation level education across society, improves the lives of countless Australians in ways too numerous, wondrous and positive for me to enunciate fully here. It is sufficient f to simply say that we are all enriched by education in one way or another—either directly by the process itself or perhaps more indirectly by the society it shapes and influences, and sometimes, simply because it offers to us all a glimpse or snapshot of what is possible and achievable in a nation as unique and priceless as Australia.

Let me highlight and focus on a few key aspects of the bill before the House. The first pertains to the general intention of the bill; the second, to the matter of its precise focus; and the third relates to funding, specifically to the government's four-year funding commitment.

The explicit purpose of this bill is to amend the act. Doing so will directly support the payment of additional funding to schools with large numbers of Indigenous boarding students from remote areas to meet an identified resourcing shortfall. Funding can commence as early as this calendar year. The Indigenous boarding initiative was announced through the 2014-15 budget and will provide approximately $6.8 million in additional funding to eligible schools. Regulations will determine school eligibility and amounts of funding under the initiative.

The bill will prevent funding cuts to students with disabilities and other students in some independent special and special assistance schools which would otherwise occur from 1 January 2015. This will be achieved by ensuring consistent transitional funding arrangements for both these schools and all others under the act. In addition, the bill will address a number of errors and omissions that occurred during the original preparation of the act and which, if left unchanged, would undermine the intended operation of the act, including creating funding and regulatory uncertainty for schools. These amendments will ensure, among other things, the correct calculation of Commonwealth funding entitlements for all Australian schools.

Together this combination of steps and measures is a strong example of what I will call complementary reconciliation, whereby Australians of all backgrounds support and complement the overarching spirit of national reconciliation with constructive, practical steps to the betterment of the lives of our Indigenous brothers and sisters. While this concept is universal, among its strongest applications is education. Furthermore, complementary reconciliation embraces two broad ideas: the first is the need to be mindful of the somewhat chequered lessons of Australia's Indigenous affairs so that they are not conveniently airbrushed by history, and the second is to construct or fashion a more positive experience for current and future Indigenous generations. This bill has been carefully crafted and balanced and gives due consideration to both these things.

I now move to the specific focus of the bill itself, which is Indigenous boarding students at particular non-government schools—a very specific demographic as opposed to a broader target audience. The rationale and logic behind this focus includes the following elements and considerations. Firstly, under the needs based funding provided by the Australian Education Act 2013, all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students attract a loading. Secondly, schools with large numbers of these students boarding have indicated that more funding is required to meet the costs of providing boarding and tuition to cater for the additional needs of the students. Thirdly, the government also considered the findings of an independent review that identified significant additional costs faced by non-government schools with large numbers of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander boarding students. In response to the review's findings, the government provided an estimated $6.8 million in the 2014-15 budget for the Indigenous boarding initiative of 2014; this funding will support eligible schools while a broader welfare review, including a review of Abstudy, is conducted. Finally, this extra funding will allow eligible schools to deliver improved services to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander boarding students from remote or very remote areas, and provide effective additional support to boost school attendance and engagement.

Equally as significant and noteworthy is the fact that these intended amendments do not break the government's four-year funding commitment, as was suggested by the member for Adelaide. Rather, they will provide an increase in funds to support Indigenous boarding students while also preventing funding reductions. Such changes would otherwise impact negatively on students with a disability at special or special assistance schools.

In the lead-up to the last federal election, the government promised to maintain the current school funding legislation for the usual four-year funding period. By way of clarification for the member for Adelaide, that means the years 2014 to 2017, not the unaffordable five and six year aspirational promises those opposite made at the time. The government has fulfilled this commitment but needs to make sure the current legislation—the Australian Education Act—operates as intended for the funding quadrennium. The bill's amendments seek to do exactly that and are thereby wholly constructive and honourable in terms of their intent, substance and operating mechanisms.

To conclude: education constitutes an enduring bridge between aspiration and achievement. This observation is universally true in most nations. Education is also significant factor which separates or divides developed from developing nations, and it clearly delineates individual communities within nations. The latter is certainly the case in Australia. These things are true of education at all stages in life, but are especially so at the foundation levels—primary and secondary school—which are the specific focal point and objective of this bill in particular.

By and through this bill, this parliament will literally forge a life-changing opportunity and extend it to a good many Indigenous Australian children. The positive long-term benefits of doing so are truly incalculable. That this bill cannot go further at this time should in no way obscure or diminish its obvious worth and value. It represents parliamentary policymaking at its very best. I therefore take much pleasure in commending to the House the Australian Education Amendment Bill 2014.

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