Sharon Claydon (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to join with my colleagues, the member for Lalor and the member for Charlton today in calling on the Abbott Liberal government to do what they in fact promised to do before they were elected. In August last year the now Education Minister and Prime Minister has stood next to each other and pledged with hand on heart that you could vote for Liberal or Labor and you will get exactly the same amount of funding for your school. They declared they were on a unity ticket with Labor with education funding. On the eve of the election, we will remember well the Prime Minister again reassuring the Australian people that there would indeed be no cuts to education, to cuts health, no changes to pensions, no change to the GST and, the best of all, no cuts the ABC or SBS. That was the context. The statement was very clear: no cuts. There was no ambiguity then, but fast-forward 15 months and the reality could not be more different. The Prime Minister's word clearly counts for very little these days. So, contrary to the solemn commitments given prior to the election, the Abbott Liberal government has embarked on a series of savage cuts to education, health, pensions, the ABC and SBS, to name just a few, while also starving the states of funds to force changes to the GST. This is a government that says one thing to get elected and then does the exact opposite afterwards, crushing any faith the Australian people had in this government to keep its word.

This is a destructive path for any government—a path that has lasting consequences for democracy. This government's approach to education funding and to investing in our nation's future is especially destructive. Its $30 billion cut to school funding is the biggest ever cut to schools in our nation's history. In my electorate of Newcastle, it is estimated that the cuts will leave schools nearly $196 million worse off over the next decade. So much for the extra $4.4 million that Francis Greenway High School in Beresfield were counting on, or the extra $2.8 million that was going to help Thornton Public School. These schools, like all 65 schools in my local electorate, are now being asked to pay the price for this government's broken promises. No matter how the government attempts to dress it up, $30 billion is a massive cut to education, with lasting consequences for our children.

Make no mistake: all the evidence at hand highlights the need for governments to invest more, not less, in our schools. That is what Labor was doing in government and what the Abbott Liberal government said they were going to do before being elected. The Gonski review, conducted in 2011, was the most comprehensive review of our school funding system in 40 years. It identified the problems within the existing school funding model but also gave us the solutions. The Gonski findings were very clear: too many children were being denied the education they needed and deserved due to a lack of resources under the existing funding arrangements. Gonski recommended that an additional $5 billion a year was needed to ensure that every school had the resources it needed, with the vast majority of that funding going to public schools, where student need was highest. It recommended that the money be used to improve student learning through more individual attention in the classroom, specialised teachers, greater support for kids with disability or special needs, and additional training and classroom support for teachers.

A new national needs-based funding system for schools was created, and new six-year funding agreements with states and territories were negotiated. A key aspect of those agreements was that the states had to maintain and indeed increase their own funding above the rate of inflation. But, to the detriment of our education system, the Abbott government has torn up the Gonski model of needs-based funding, slashed funding to our schools by $30 million and let the states off scot-free. Our schools, school communities, teachers and students deserve better. Every child in Australia deserves the best start in life and access to high-quality education, not just those with big wallets. (Time expired)

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