Ms Julie Bishop (Curtin, Liberal Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on behalf of the school communities in my electorate of Curtin. The purpose of this bill, the Australian Education Amendment Bill 2017, is to ensure that there is a fair, consistent and transparent school funding model with Commonwealth and state government contributions combining to support both the state government school sector and the non-government and independent school sector.

The Turnbull government is committed to fixing the existing outdated funding model that is manifestly unfair and complicated, with at least 27 separate funding agreements, to ensure that Australia has a fairer, more sustainable and needs-based funding model. It is essential that funding is tied to improvements in student outcomes, as part of an evidence based reform package. It is a travesty that, while more funding has been provided to education, overall student performance has not improved, judging by the international benchmarks.

I take this opportunity to note that, in my electorate of Curtin, there is also a need to address the issue of inadequate support for state government high schools and overcrowding. I am pleased that the previous state Liberal government had resolved this issue with plans to upgrade Carine, Churchlands and Shenton Park high schools and reopen City Beach High. The state Liberals undertook broad consultation across the community, and their plans received virtually unanimous support. A needs-based solution that involved proper consultation was finalised. The Liberal Party approach stands in stark contrast to the new state Labor government and its heavy-handed and ideologically driven approach to education policy, manifest in its approach to Perth Modern School.

Perth Modern is one of the top schools in my electorate and among the best schools in Western Australia. It is a selective academic school which is producing some of the best academic results in the state. Founded in 1911, it has nurtured some of the most academically gifted students in the state over generations—former Governor-General Sir Paul Hasluck, former Labor Prime Minister Bob Hawke, former Labor minister Kim Beazley, former Attorney-General Daryl Williams, former state governor and distinguished Queen's Counsel Malcolm McCusker and many other eminent and talented alumni. A state government school with such a proud record of achievement should be celebrated, and other schools should be encouraged to emulate its approach. Indeed, under the federal government's new funding model Perth Modern School will receive an estimated $39 million in Commonwealth contributions over the next decade, an increase of over $12 million from 2018 to 2027, to enable it to continue its record of academic excellence.

Sadly, I must advise the House that the new state Labor government is proposing to trash the Perth Modern legacy by turning the current location in Subiaco into a local general intake school and relocating the selective entry school away from its historic buildings and open sporting fields to a multi-storey office tower in the inner central business district. Welcome to the dystopian world of Labor Premier Mark McGowan, a former education minister no less! Labor proposes to gut Perth Modern and establish an academic selective school, named Perth Academic College, to be located on the upper floors of a high-rise office block in Perth city. As a former federal education minister, I am acutely aware of the educational needs of children, including access to open air, green space, playing fields and sporting facilities. Perth Modern School has produced not only community leaders, doctors, scientists and actors but also Olympians in athletics, hockey, swimming and pistol shooting. How can a school with no access to sporting facilities and playing fields offer a quality education?

This bill is about ensuring fair access to a quality education. Labor talks about fairness and then seeks to undermine Perth Modern, one of the best schools in Western Australia, which has provided enormous opportunities to children from every socio-economic background across our state. Do not listen to what Labor says, watch what it does. Labor's proposal to relocate an entire high school to an inner-city office block has been developed without any proper consultation or assessment of its detrimental impact educationally, socially and economically, let alone the security aspects. To have children aged 12 to 17 years old schools in a high-rise city building with no access to outdoors or sporting facilities is sheer ideological madness. There has been immense and growing opposition from concerned citizens, from the Perth Modern community, and from present and past students and alumni. I have been inundated with complaints from concerned parents who want to ensure the proud history of Perth Modern is protected and its successful educational formula preserved for the benefit of future generations.

It was in 2007 that the then Labor state government took action to restore Perth Modern School to the status of a selective academic school, which it had been from 1911 to 1958. I applauded the decision at the time. Labor Premier Mark McGowan and his education minister, Sue Ellery, have further insulted the school by suggesting they will consult with the school community 'after the announcement'. As former Governor Malcolm McCusker noted, at most the school community might get a say in the colour of the walls! There is no logical or reasonable explanation for this assault on Perth Modern School other than Labor's ideological war on those who aspire to excellence. Premier McGowan is now in in a race to the bottom with his embrace of lowest common denominator thinking.

I stand with the proud Perth Modern Community against Labor's ill-conceived plans. I call on the Leader of the Opposition and the shadow education minister to put aside any sense of misplaced loyalty to a state Labor government and join with the coalition in putting the interests of bright, young Western Australian children first. In the interests of our nation, we need to be nurturing the next generation of young leaders and thinkers, and Perth Modern School has a proven track record of producing many of our finest. Our education reform package offers choice, fairness, quality and excellence. I commend the federal government's education reform package to the House.

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