Tanya Plibersek (Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) notes the Government's failure in school education policy, including:

  (a) a cut of $30 billion from schools (Budget 2014-15 Overview, 13 May 2014, page 7), breaking an election promise to match Labor's funding plan dollar for dollar;

  (b) a proposal to cut all federal funding from public schools; and

  (c) tearing up agreements negotiated by the previous Labor Government, that required states and territories to:

     (i) maintain and grow their funding for schools, in return for increased Commonwealth funding; and

     (ii) improve teaching quality, literacy and numeracy; and

(2) calls on the Government to:

  (a) urgently share a detailed plan for future funding of our schools, including the funding each state, system and school will receive from 2018 onwards;

  (b) reverse the cut of $30 billion from schools;

  (c) explain why they tore up agreements that required states and territories to increase funding for schools as Commonwealth contributions increased, and improve teaching, literacy and numeracy; and

  (d) prioritise funding for disadvantaged schools and introduce a proper students with disabilities loading, so all schools and students have the resources they need for a great education.

Every Australian child deserves a great education because it opens up a lifetime of opportunity, and that is why we believe that every school should be funded properly. In contrast, we have got a government that say that, if you give extra money to very large businesses in the form of a tax cut, that will be great for those businesses and it will mean that they perform better, at the same time as they are trying to say that extra money does not make a difference in schools. It is an absolutely logically inconsistent argument. At the very same time as they are cutting $30 billion from our schools, they want to give a $50 billion tax giveaway to the biggest businesses in Australia. They say that money does not matter to schools, but it does matter to big business.

We will never accept the notion that extra funding, particularly for our most disadvantaged schools, cannot make a difference for Australian students, and I will never accept that, because I have seen the difference it makes. At every school I visit, principals tell me, teachers tell me, teachers aides tell me, parents tell me and, perhaps most importantly, students tell me about the difference that those early years of needs based funding has made to schools. Children who have got speech pathology for the first time or occupational therapy, those kids who started school not able to hold a pair of scissors properly or form a sentence, are catching up so quickly to their peers, so they are able to properly undertake their literacy and numeracy studies with their peers and not be left behind.

There has been an enormous amount of confusion from the government about what they actually intend when it comes to school funding. Originally, the then shadow education minister, the member for Sturt, said that Gonski was a gone-ski, and then he was forced, just before the 2010 election, into a backflip as his then leader realised how popular needs-based funding was. The government then came up with, 'You can vote Labor; You can vote Liberal; there's not a dollar's difference to your schools.' In fact, they had the bunting, they had the posters—I saw it on polling day. Sadly, the difference has been $30 billion, not $1. In fact, the average school has a $3 million difference when it comes to school funding because of that broken promise.

The May 2014 budget is the only indication we have of what this government intends when it comes to school funding. That shows a $30 billion cut; it is there in black and white in the graph on page 7 of the budget overview—a $30 billion cut to school funding. We have been told again and again that we will get a concrete proposal that the states and territories can evaluate, the Catholic sector can evaluate and independent schools can evaluate sometime, with plenty of time for consultation. Time is fast running out. The government absolutely must provide detail of what they intend with school funding for the future.

Schools are making decisions today about whether teachers will be on a one-year contract at the end of this year and whether they will have another year's contract next year. They are deciding whether to invest resources in helping their children catch up with their literacy and numeracy. They need to know whether they can offer a catch-up program for one year or whether it will be a multi-year program. They need to know whether to target the kindergarten kids or the older kids who are about to go to high school. These decisions are being made in schools right around Australia as we speak. The disability student loading has been promised again and again by this government, and we still have no detail about what is intended.

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