Alan Tudge (Aston, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I listened closely to the shadow education spokesperson during her 10-minute address. She levelled a number of criticisms at the coalition with regard to our schools policy. Most of those I just dismissed, but there was one truth in what she said. She said that we did not deliver on our commitment that we would match dollar for dollar what Labor promised. That is true. We did not match dollar for dollar; we exceeded it by $1.2 billion.

When the Labor Party made their promises and put their commitments forward for the Gonski funding when they were in government, they held a number of negotiations with state governments but neglected to negotiate with Queensland, and they could not get a deal with Western Australia and the Northern Territory. Consequently, those three jurisdictions were $1.2 billion worse off. When we came to government, we made the commitment, on the eve of the election, that we would not only match dollar for dollar what Labor said but put that $1.2 billion back into schools so that Western Australian, Queensland and Northern Territorian schools would also be the beneficiaries of that additional money.

I want to go back to what we said before the election. I was there with the then opposition leader and the then shadow education spokesperson when the announcement was made. It was very clear that we said we would match dollar for dollar the four-year funding commitment over the forward estimates. That is what we promised. We did not promise beyond that. We said that we would commit to the four-year funding commitment and we have done exactly that, plus more.

Look at our funding growth forecasts for school funding, for example: 11.1 per cent, last year's growth; 7.9 per cent, this year's growth; 8.6 per cent, next year's growth; and 6.5 per cent the year after. This means that it is a record level of funding of $69.4 billion going to Australian schools over the four-year period—a record level of funding.

The Labor Party come in here, day in day out, and say that we are cutting funding to schools. I do not know how they can say that when I have just given the figures for the growth rates we are putting in to schools—11.1 per cent growth in year 1; 7.9 per cent growth in year 2; 8.6 per cent growth in year 3; and 6.5 per cent in year 4. That is our commitment to schools. That is the record funding that schools have never before seen. We will continue to invest in schools.

The other point I would make in relation to school funding is that while the funding is important and we will continue to invest in schools, and that funding will continue to grow, it is not the only thing. We know that because when you look at the funding over the last decade, you will see that there has actually been a 44 per cent real increase in funding to schools. But over that period our standards have actually declined both in real terms and in absolute terms compared to other nations.

If you look at our results compared to our OECD competitors, our schools were always in the very top band of performance. For most of those, we have now dropped down to the second band. For example: year 4 reading, we are now 27th in the world; year 4 maths, we are 18th; year 4 science, we are 25th; year 8 maths, we are 12th; year 8 science, we are 12th. Compared to some of the Asian countries that we now increasingly compete with, in some respects we are two or three years behind them at various stages of an individual's schooling by the time a child reaches 15, for example.

Despite all that investment in schools and the fact that we have funding in our schools which is above the OECD average, our standards have actually gone backwards relative to ourselves and certainly relative to other countries. Clearly on that evidence alone, funding is not the only thing. Yes, it is important. Yes, we will continue to invest record amounts, but it is not the only thing.

What all the academics tell us is what really counts is teacher quality, a rigorous curriculum and parental engagement. They are the things which really make a difference. So that is why this government has been so determined to make an impact on those things. Deputy Speaker, as you know, we did a full review of the national curriculum with the aim of having a much more rigorous curriculum, which reaches similar standards to some of our international competitors. You know the efforts that we have made to have higher quality teacher graduates and to have higher quality teaching occurring in our schools. I personally have been concerned in relation to the dropping ATAR scores for entrance into some of the teacher education courses around this country. I think that is something of deep concern to many people, certainly on this side of the chamber. There has been some good action on this front already and there needs to be further action on this front. These are the things which really make a difference to school performance.

It is about having that quality teacher in front of the classroom. We all know that. Every parent knows that, because every parent is so concerned about which teacher they get for their son or daughter. They know that you can have a great year in a school one year and have a less great year the following year even though you are in the same school with the same school principal, with the same curriculum and with the same funding. The difference for that student is the quality of the teacher standing in front of the classroom. We want to see exemplar teachers right across the board, and that is exactly what we are aiming to achieve.

Let me in the last few minutes that I have speak about Labor's policy. The member for Adelaide was very passionate about their policy, where they say that they are going to be investing $33 billion into schools over the next decade. I ask the Labor Party: where is the money going to come from? They say they are going to invest $33 billion in schools, yet we know that they already have a $51 billion black hole. Everybody knows the state of the budget presently—that we are in deficit and we are still trying to pay back the debt which Labor gave to us when we came into government just a couple of years ago. Everybody knows that we have had very significant budget deficits—they were as far as the eye could see when we came to government a couple of years ago—and they know the work that we are doing to get the budget back under control. That requires very disciplined spending restraint and disciplined work to grow the economy and do the types of things that we are doing.

So when we see these types of figures, you shake your head and say, 'Where is Labor going to fund that from?' They have not identified that. Are they going to do it from (a) new taxes or (b) just add it to the credit card bill for the next generation to pay for it? It can only be from one of those two sources. They are the two sources that they went to when they were in government. They whacked everything on the credit card for the next generation to pay for. So the younger people who are in the gallery today are going to be paying for Labor's debt for years to come. The children who are in the gallery up the top at the moment will particularly be paying for Labor's debt for years to come through higher taxes.

That is what they did—and, if they get back into government, that is exactly what they are going to do again. They are going to get the credit card out and they are going to place it all on the credit card and make future generations pay for it. In addition to that, they are going to look for new taxes after new taxes. They have already placed billions of dollars of new taxes on the table and yet have only put about $1 billion of actual savings on the table—one measly billion dollars of savings; yet they have billions of dollars of tax proposals on the table. That is not responsible. If you want to invest in schools, you have to be able to run a good economy. You have to be able to run a budget which is under control. You have to be able to have a growing economy, which is what we aim to do, and you have to have the money to invest in it for our children's future—and that is exactly what this government is doing.

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