John McVeigh (Groom, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

We are debating one of the most important areas of legislation for any government—the education of our children and the proper resourcing of the schools and teachers who support them. The Turnbull government's approach with this bill is to ensure a fair, transparent and consistent schools funding model. Those themes of fairness, transparency and consistency are so critical in this debate and they are the principles that those opposite are simply ignoring in not supporting this bill. Of course, it reflects some of the core concepts recommended by the Gonski review, which the former Labor government often talked about but were clearly never committed to funding or implementing properly.

Instead, they tolerated and condoned inequities in the system and went about the awkward and inconsistent approach of special deals across the country. They were not and clearly are not interested in the principles of fairness, transparency and consistency that the government promotes in this amendment bill. Further, whilst those opposite continue with their political games, the government is getting on with the job, as it has been doing right across the portfolios in terms of community security, economic stability, growth and jobs—and in this case education arrangements, which will cease by the end of this year, by developing this legislation to set school funding for 2018 and beyond.

This bill puts in place an extra $18.6 billion in recurrent school funding, which will bring our total 10-year investment to a record $242.3 billion from 2018 to 2027. Labor feebly suggests that this record expenditure is a cut, whereas in reality the only cuts to education that are on record are Labor's hollow promises of the past that were never a real program of government, were not funded beyond 2017 and remained unfunded under their current policies. But it is not just about the dollars. The Turnbull government's approach to ensuring quality in our education system, in line with our Quality Schools, Quality Outcomes policy, is focused on ensuring student outcomes are prioritised as much as student funding. As I said, it is only the Turnbull government that is getting on with the job of ensuring quality in our education system, and that is important due to our country's declining education performance, a decline that must be addressed.

National and international evidence proves that we must step up our efforts. It is simply not acceptable that large numbers of Australian students did not reach intermediate international benchmarks in science and mathematics. If we want our country to be competitive in a global environment with all its opportunities and challenges in a significant period of change and innovation that will not abate, our children must be technologically literate. They must have strong foundations in literacy and numeracy, and in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. That is why the Turnbull government's Quality Schools, Quality Outcomes reform agenda is so essentially focused on strengthening teaching and school leadership, developing essential knowledge and skills, improving student participation and parental engagement, and ensuring better evidence and transparency.

As the person in this House who represents the wonderful electorate of Groom, I am so very proud to see this agenda underway in my community—in Pittsworth, Oakey, Toowoomba, Highfields and so many villages in between; in preschool and in primary and secondary school settings. Like so many in this House, I am a proud student from my own region. I began school at state school and continued my primary schooling at St Thomas More Catholic Primary School in Toowoomba before proceeding to St Joseph's College and Downlands College to complete my secondary education. We have a significant education sector in our region, servicing not only our local communities but many communities and many families, through our boarding schools, right throughout southern inland Queensland, northern inland New South Wales and beyond. Tremendous child-care and preschool facilities complement our fine schools, as do the TAFE, the University of Southern Queensland and the nearby University of Queensland campus at Gatton.

I am fortunate indeed to be married to a teacher. My wife, Anita, teaches in the Catholic education sector. I have had the privilege in past years of being a member of the Catholic Education board for the Toowoomba diocese, and I have been a board member and chairman of the Downlands College board as well. All of our six children have been educated in Toowoomba schools in the Catholic education system. I am particularly proud that two of our daughters are completing their education degrees, one in primary school teaching, the other as a secondary school trainee teacher currently on prac in Central Queensland this very week. As I know, they are both passionate about their future careers and, like their mum, they are already getting that unsurpassed satisfaction of seeing students learn and develop such that they too, in turn, can take up their full roles in our society.

As a student, parent and partner of a teacher, and as a board member of a schooling system and school board chair, I know what it is like in state, Catholic and independent schools to strive for a focus on education quality, to maintain budget, to manage and provide for those outcomes, to satisfy families' desires for their children to admire and benefit from the efforts of passionate, professional teachers and, above all else, to ensure high-quality outcomes for children throughout our region.

The challenge has been significant, and it remains. We must continue to improve year by year. That is why I am so proud to be a member of a government that is committed to such outcomes in a fair, consistent and transparent way. In our electorate of Groom, we are blessed with 73 primary and secondary schools, including state, Catholic and independent institutions, and including a number of boarding schools. Every one of those schools, large and small alike, will see an increase over the next 10 years. Every one. These schools in Groom will see an estimated $1.9 billion in total Commonwealth funding over the period 2018 to 2027. Each of our schools will receive their fair share of funding based on need, with more transparency and ties to reforms to boost our education outcomes.

Let us stop for a moment to consider some of those increases from 2018 to 2027 to just some of the schools across Groom, in Toowoomba and across the Darling Downs. Highfields State Secondary College, the magnificent new school just north of Toowoomba, established by the former LNP state government: $4.5 million. One of our well-regarded boarding schools, Concordia Lutheran College: $13.5 million. The magnificent Clifford Park Special School: $3.5 million. St Mary's College, a traditional Christian Brothers college, now a diocesan school, established in 1899: $20.1 million. Kingsthorpe State School in a significant growth corridor: $1.7 million. Harristown State Primary School, with an amazing and eclectic student body: $3.5 million. Just across the road, Harristown State High School, under the leadership of Ken Green: $17.6 million. The historic Toowoomba Grammar School, established in 1876, whose students joined me at the Australian War Memorial here in Canberra just last week: $21 million. Centenary Heights State High School, where my sister started her teaching career, now led by Mary Anne Walsh: $13.5 million. Meringandan State School, on another significant growth corridor: $1.7 million. Toowoomba Christian College, a burgeoning school at Highfields: $17.5 million. And St Joseph's College, also originally a Christian Brothers college, now a co-educational diocesan school: $18.2 million.

In my 10 or so months in this House, I have regularly taken the opportunity to talk about the wonderful electorate of Groom, and the fact that it is leading regional Australia in economic development and export activity and that it maintains an employment rate and standard of living which is the envy of much of the rest of the country. This is due in no small part to the ongoing leadership and investment of the Turnbull government, the former LNP state government and the Toowoomba Regional Council, all of whom partnered in infrastructure and policy settings that have allowed our region to absolutely blossom. As you would be familiar with, Mr Deputy Speaker Hogan, our agricultural base lies amongst the best farming and grazing regions in the land. We are a resource and energy powerhouse, with a significant mining industry heritage. We have facilities involved in coal, solar, wind and gas based energy activities. We are leaders in these areas as well. As I have said, we are the education capital of much of southern inland Queensland and northern inland New South Wales, and we continue to grow as a health capital for those very same regions across these two states. Our arts culture is evolving dramatically, and technology and innovation in data storage, robotics, composite fibre technology and agricultural engineering, amongst other areas of activity, are capturing worldwide attention. Of course we have two defence bases in our region—the Oakey Army Aviation Centre, Swartz Barracks, and Borneo Barracks at Cabarlah, a significant signals and technological warfare unit.

The essential part of the puzzle in securing our future as a region, given all those assets, given all that innovation, is that our education system has to be based on a fairer, needs based, more transparent and consistently supported arrangement. To maintain that focus in Groom for businesses and our families and to continue to create the jobs of the future, a quality education system with guaranteed funding from government is absolutely essential. We need those skills, and education has to go hand in hand with job creation for our region in the future. That is why this bill promises so much for Australia, especially in my electorate of Groom.

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