Melissa Price (Durack, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House places on record that:

(1) the Government is committed to improving education in regional, rural and remote Australia;

(2) this commitment stretches across all levels of education—primary, secondary and tertiary; and

(3) Members in regional electoral divisions have held higher education forums throughout regional Australia, to identify how to bridge the gap between metropolitan and regional higher education.

I am very pleased to speak on my private members' business motion highlighting the Turnbull government's work in country education. Firstly, I want to set the record straight regarding education funding. Last year, this government increased funding to Western Australian schools by a whopping 42 per cent over the next four years—which is some $619 million. So accusing this government of making cuts to schools is pure fantasy.

As a Liberal, I am very proud to be shining a light on improving education in the bush. I start by paying tribute to the other three speakers today from the government side: the member for O'Connor—who is here with me now—and also the member for Forrest and the member for Canning. All these speakers are from the Liberal Party and all proudly represent rural and regional Western Australian electorates. All four of us know the challenges of living outside of a city and are determined that a kid in the bush should have the same opportunities as their city cousins. In a bid to improve education in the very remote towns which I represent, this government is providing $22 million over four years to Good to Great Schools Australia to roll out the Flexible Literacy for Remote Primary Schools Program in 33 remote schools in Western Australia and the Northern Territory. This will target the disparity between remote and metropolitan schools, where 94 per cent of year 3 students meet the minimum standard in NAPLAN compared to 84 per cent in remote schools and, sadly, only 55.7 per cent in very remote schools—many of them in my electorate. As well as improving education in remote schools, the Turnbull government is improving education for Indigenous Australians. We have provided some $11.5 million over three years to 2016 through the Indigenous Boarding Initiative to support non-government schools with a significant number of Indigenous students from remote areas. Last year this initiative helped 26 schools and over 1,700 students throughout the country. This funding will help these schools to deliver improved services to students—such as a focus on school attendance and engagement—and to ensure that Indigenous students from remote areas have access to a universally good education, as they deserve.

Learning is a lifelong process, and I believe that tertiary education is an important chapter in every young man's and woman's education. In Durack I am very proud of the highly successful, innovative Geraldton Universities Centre model. This is something that I am working hard on to expand not only into the northern part of my electorate—in the Pilbara and in the Kimberley—but also more broadly into the Wheatbelt. Since its inception in 2001 GUC has grown from 20 students to more than a whopping 250 students this year, which I believe is a fantastic result. It has been so successful that the GUC model has been copied in Cooma, New South Wales, with the Cooma Universities Centre opening in 2013.

I am especially proud of this government's recent changes to youth allowance, which will enable more kids from the bush to go to university. Reforming this assets test has allowed thousands more young people to qualify for youth payments such as youth allowance, ABSTUDY, living allowance and the assistance for isolated children scheme. The regional higher education forums which were held around the country—we held one in Moora in my electorate last year—I am very pleased to say will also lead to improved outcomes for regional tertiary students. Our regional higher education forums were very proudly supported by representatives from the departments of education and social security, which are now charged with the responsibility of preparing a report on the findings from the forums. I am quite confident that the report will detail the barriers for country students and will also deliver real recommendations.

I have met with the education minister, Simon Birmingham, and also the social services minister, Christian Porter, along with fellow regional members on this side of the chamber, and we are pleased to say that we are now pushing hard for an increase in rent assistance for students from the bush. As I have said, the Turnbull government is focused on creating real solutions, delivering real action and improving education across all levels—primary, secondary and tertiary—for regional, remote and rural students. To students and their families in the bush my message is simple: we on this side of the chamber understand the issues you face. We are listening, and those of us on this side of the chamber are working to deliver quality education. I am very pleased to be here today to talk about what we are going to do both now and into the future.

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