Steve Georganas (Hindmarsh, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

If I were the member for Aston, I would not talk too loudly. In his electorate alone there are over $8.3 million in cuts to schools, one of them being the Rowville Secondary College, which alone loses $1.5 million. That is one $1.5 million from that community and that school.

We know, and everyone around the world knows, that one of the levers we have to change someone's life for the better is through education. We have seen so many people that had a start in life living through poverty, through bad luck and through a whole range of things. Because of determinations of governments, of parents and of communities, they have been able to put people through schooling to change their entire lives and their entire generation. We saw this is the early years of public education here in Australia. We saw this when we had the Gough Whitlam government, when we had free education for universities. It gave people the opportunity to go and get a degree when they had previously had absolutely no hope under conservative governments.

The government is not interested in education. They can dress it up, they can package it, they can paint it, they can put lipstick on it and they can put a bow tie on it, but the reality is that when you add up the sums there is a $22 billion cut to education in Australia. That is fine. If the government want to make a cut, that is fine. Be up-front. Be honest. Come out and say, 'We're making these cuts in order to fund X, Y and Z.' Perhaps there is a shortfall in health and we need that money and it is urgent. That is fine; we will debate it. But, through you, Deputy Speaker, do not give us this story that you are not cutting and that you are putting more money into it when we truly know that the $22 billion is taken out of education to make up the sum for the $65 billion tax cut to the wealthiest people in Australia. There is no reasoning for us to be doing such a thing as to take $22 billion out of our schools and communities—funding that is there to assist and build the foundations for those students to go on and change their lives—in order to give a $65 billion tax cut to Australia's richest people. That is not on.

We on this side do not believe in that. We believe that children should have every opportunity to better themselves and to get an education, and also that schools should have the facilities, the teachers, the abilities and the resources they require for some students that perhaps are falling behind or, for whatever reason, are not up to standard. That is why we need to be able to build those foundations in those early years to give those children that opportunity to go ahead and change their lives. Together with that, we are changing the world. Deputy Speaker, when you give someone a good education you are changing the world. Along with a better life for them, with a collective we are changing the world to be a better place.

This was funding under Labor's plan. Under the plan this government agreed to in 2013, this was funding that needed to go to students who needed extra support, in some cases, for numeracy and literacy and to help teachers support students with additional needs. There is still no detail. This is what I cannot understand. We have not seen clear funding detail from this government to this point. (Time expired)

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