Milton Dick (Oxley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

A quality education is fundamental to the core Australian value of a fair go. Today, I rise to join this debate on the Australian Education Amendment Bill 2017 and join the thousands of parents and grandparents, hundreds of educators, principals, teachers' aids, school workers and, most importantly, the children that I represent in this parliament who want decent funding for education in our community. Making sure our schools and classrooms are properly funded and resourced is the cornerstone of ensuring that every Australian student is given the best opportunity to succeed in their education and reach their full potential.

My sister is a school teacher and has proudly been a public school educator for almost 30 years. My cousins are teachers. I am proud of them and every other teacher in this country. I am not just proud of them; I am grateful for the work that they do day in, day out. I am incredibly proud of the QTU, a strong body that advocates for and represents teachers across Queensland. I acknowledge the outstanding leadership of people like Kevin Bates, my good friend Sam Pidgeon, Kate Ruttiman, Brendan Crotty and Lyn Esders, a local teachers' organiser who stands up for teachers in my local community every day of the week.

I am proud to work alongside school principals and local schools in my community. There are wonderful educators like Beth Petersen from Durack State School, John O'Connor from Our Lady of the Sacred Heart at Darra, Anne Kitchin at Middle Park, Pat Murphy from Woodcrest college, Denise Kostowski from Forest Lake State High School, Lee Gerchow at Goodna State School and John Brew at the brilliant Centenary State High School. These are just a handful of the great schools in the Oxley electorate. Every time I go to these schools I see the passion and dedication of those professionals and great staff.

Today, I stand to oppose the $22 billion worth of cuts that the Turnbull government is proposing for education in Australia. I will not vote to cut millions of dollars for funding for schools in my community. I will not cast a vote to make it harder for local Catholic parish schools in the electorate of Oxley to make ends meet. I stand in this place to demand true needs-based funding—a model that is fair and gives our kids a fair go. Enough is enough. This government needs to end the war on education and start properly funding education in this nation.

I listened to what the member for Hughes had to say. He said that this was all a conspiracy—that everyone was making it up—and that he was the font of all knowledge when it came to education funding in this country. I need to educate the member for Hughes and advise him on the destructive policies that he is voting for and advocating for. I refer to correspondence from the Catholic Secondary Principals of Australia and the Australian Catholic Primary Principals' Association to the minister of education—the member for Hughes' colleague inside the LNP government. I quote from the letter to the minister:

The legislation amendment announcements by the Prime Minister and yourself on 2 May disenfranchised Catholic school principals, who without any accurate details, suddenly had to explain to current and prospective parents what your announcement meant for their future school fees.

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The Catholic principals stand in solidarity with the Catholic education systems and they support system funding and the co-responsibility that goes with it. Hence, Catholic school principals stand united with the broader Catholic school community in the face of a deliberate strategy by the Government to undermine the system by pitting principal against principal, school against school (evidenced by the misleading letters to each school and the funding estimator website).

CaSPA and ACPPA want to make it clear that the tactic will not work. CaSPA and ACPPA can assure the Minister that Catholic education will stand together to ensure Catholic schools remain affordable and available for all families who seek them.

That is what this government is proposing to do: not only to rip money out of the public school sector but to place extra pressure on the small and local Catholic parish schools right across the community. Through you, Mr Deputy Speaker, I say to the member for Hughes: go and meet with your school principals, go to your local Catholic schools, go and talk to their peak bodies—go and listen to them.

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