Andrew Giles (Scullin, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

The Turnbull government is failing Australian schools. The Turnbull government is failing Australian students. Even more fundamentally than either of these two failings, it is failing our future. The poverty of this government's vision is shown when it comes to the debate over schools funding and education, as the Deputy Leader of the Opposition made clear. They say that we cannot afford to invest in our children, yet we can afford massive tax breaks for the big banks and multinational companies.

Today I have had the misfortune to be sitting in this parliament and hearing contributions from government members on the plebiscite bill. Throughout these contributions they have advanced an argument that we should have confidence in the Australian people. This is a powerful statement. There are 29 billion reasons the conservatives have no confidence in the Australian people. We choose the pathway to prosperity that is built on investing in education and on encouraging every child to fill his or her potential. We do so because it is the right thing to do. We do so on the basis of advice—expert advice here and expert advice around the world. It is so disappointing that government members are walking away from Gonski and are heedless of the advice from bodies like the IMF. Our pathway to the future, for getting individuals into jobs of the future and for all of us collectively, is through investing in education. We have a road map to do that, and I am so proud that the Gillard government ended more than 50 years of Commonwealth funding uncertainty and inequities when it came to schools.

That is why it is so disappointing to hear the assistant shadow minister. She has offered a very effective tribute to her minister, because what she did for 10 minutes is what he does all the time: talk around the issues, offer up platitudes while not engaging with his responsibilities or government members' responsibilities more generally. We have, in the Gonski recommendations, a pathway for every child to fill their potential. Gonski recognised, as we recognised, that talent is distributed evenly. Our challenge is to overcome the barriers that prevent some people's talents from being fully revealed through the schooling system. I am so proud that in opposition we have continued, through the great work of the member for Adelaide and the member for Kingston, to stand true to the principles of needs-based funding. I am proud today to stand here as part of Labor's education team to give voice to the concerns of students, teachers and parents and to bear witness—as the member for Sydney has just done—to the transformative effects of needs-based funding even in these early days.

On the other hand, what do we have from government members? Schools funding really is the Turnbull government writ small. The conservatives have gone so quickly from a unity ticket to—who knows? The minister cannot explain; he is more interested in offering misleading, dissembling drops to the media than in engaging with his state and territory colleagues. He is treating them with contempt, and he is treating our kids with contempt. He deflects, distracts and dissembles. Why? It is actually pretty easy to see why. He knows, because I presume he has actually read the Gonski report and the mountain of evidence that sits alongside it, that he cannot defend nearly $30 billion of cuts. He cannot argue with the evidence that is before him and before us, so he does not. It is disappointing that the assistant minister talks about large investments and falling standards because those investments are not needs based funding. They reveal the importance of moving to needs based funding—the critical importance of it, if we are serious about our future.

Perhaps the most egregious aspect of the minister's failings go to our failure, under this government, to support students with disabilities. The Gonski report recommended that the loading to support students with disabilities be founded in more evidence. The evidence was not satisfactory in 2013.

Ms Collins interjecting—

We needed better data from the states, as the member for Franklin reminds me. Three years have gone by. Last year, the minister claimed, 'State and territory education ministers have indicated that they will be able to provide the data this year so it can apply next year'—that is, 2016. I will be holding them to that so that every child in Australia with a disability will be able to receive the correct loading. He made another promise that he has broken. His failure to support students with disabilities is emblematic of this government's failure to support every child having every chance to achieve their potential in schools and education. (Time expired)

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