Rick Wilson (O'Connor, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Firstly, to those opposite I say it is good to see some Western Australian members here today: the member for Burt and the member for Brand. I give them great credit for staying here and listening to our point of view and the Western Australian point of view which I and my colleague the member for Durack are about to put.

I go back to what the government is proposing and what we are achieving here: an overall spend of $242 billion on schooling by the Commonwealth over the next 10 years. That is real money in the budget, in the forward estimates and with a plan beyond the forward estimates. That is not what we had when we came to government in 2013. We had a fantasy. When I play monopoly with my kids, I have got to explain to them—particularly the younger ones—that it is not real money. That is what those on the other side need to understand about the original Gonski plan. It was not real money. It was a fantasy.

What the government has done here—and the Minister for Education, Senator Birmingham, has done an outstanding job—is come up with a plan that implements equality across all education sectors and does it with real money. That is the first point that I want to stress here. Now we can talk about what is happening Australia-wide. It is an average increase in funding of 4.1 per cent per student. But what is it for WA, Member for Burt? It is 5.2 per cent. So that is an increase for WA. I am going to be very interested, when we get to the vote, to see whether the Western Australian members in this place on the other side are prepared to vote against a significant increase in funding for Western Australia.

In my electorate of O'Connor—one of those regional electorates that the member for Solomon was talking about—we get a 6.2 per cent increase across all sectors over the period to 2027. Six point two per cent is a significant increase in funding for all school sectors across my electorate. I am particularly pleased to see that the government sector picks up 7.7 per cent—that is in the government school sector. That is a very solid increase in funding for those schools. They often operate in remote areas in difficult conditions and where it is difficult to attract teachers to inland regional areas. I want to give a shout-out to those wonderful schools in my electorate.

In 2016, in the league table—I know that not everyone is a fan of the league tables, but they do give an indication of how individual schools are performing—we had in the top 50 Eastern Goldfields College in Kalgoorlie, Great Southern Grammar in Albany and John Paul College in Kalgoorlie. Two schools from my colleague from Durack's old home town—and indeed I think that John Paul College was formed out of Prendiville College, where the member for Durack went to school. In 2015 the Mount Barker Community College, the Western Australian College of Agriculture Denmark, Esperance Senior High School, Kearnan College in Manjimup and St Joseph's College in Albany all made the top 50. These are fantastic results, given that there are another 16 electorates around Western Australia. That would be an average of three to four schools per electorate in that top cohort—and in 2015 we had five. In 2014, we had Albany Senior High School, Manjimup Senior High School and Eastern Goldfields College all score extremely well in the group.

We have heard that this policy is friendless from those opposite today. I want to read a few quotes. We have already heard from David Gonski. On this side we all give a Gonski, and it would appear that those on the other side no longer give a Gonski. I want quote from Dennis Yarrington from the Australian Primary Principals Association. These are government schools, who would generally not necessarily be all that friendly to a coalition government, but Dennis Yarrington said:

Common funding arrangements across the country will see greater transparency and give principals confidence that what they receive in school funding is fair and equitable.

What more can you say? That is the whole purpose of this funding model. It is good for Western Australia and I await seeing those opposite from Western Australia voting with us for a better deal for WA.

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