Andrew Giles (Scullin, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

In this debate there is an important set of voices missing from the government perspective: the voices of schools, students and school communities. The government will not talk about them—and is that surprising? They hide behind these other voices because they will not make the arguments. On this side of the House, we see this debate very, very differently. When we talk about schools, we are talking about our kids, their future and the future of all of us. That is why this debate about schools funding matters so much to us.

For the Prime Minister, it may be a game. When he talks about schools and he talks about it being needs based, it is his needs—the needs of his political leadership, his political fortunes. For us, we are concerned about the needs of our children and, indeed, Australia's prospects. So it is no surprise that the assistant minister did not want to talk about schools. It is hard to blame her for that, but she must be accountable for the government, which she is part of, that is short-changing Australian students and, in particular, short-changing those most in need: those students in government schools in the Northern Territory and Tasmania. But, with this ridiculous formula, this ridiculous, baseless commitment to cap the Commonwealth investment in state school funding at 20 per cent of the fair funding standard, it is also foreclosing on the future of every kid in a government school in Australia. That formula is something that is nowhere to be seen in Gonski. It is not sustainable, and it is short-changing our kids' future.

But she did lay down a challenge, and on this side we are prepared to respond to that challenge. Minister, we will talk about every aspect of education across the life for this parliament. We will hold the government to account for its lack of certainty when it comes to high-quality early years education and the contemptuous way in which it has treated early years educators. We will stand up for public TAFE as the cornerstone of the skills agenda that is fit for the future. Every day we will come in here and hold the government to account for $3.8 billion of cuts to higher education and, also, a ridiculous additional imposition of higher fees and higher repayment levels that will deter too many people from participating in higher education.

But, in relation to schools, we look at the government and we remind them what Gonski was all about. What the Gonski panel said at the time was that every Australian school child deserves to be supported to a fair funding standard. That is the first point. The second point is that getting there is a shared responsibility of the Commonwealth, state and territory governments and schooling sectors. Whatever else this so-called Gonski 2.0 package is, it fails that test. In fact, it does not even approach that test. Everything the Prime Minister and Minister Birmingham say walks around those critical issues. All the Prime Minister is doing is looking for people to hide behind on the one hand and people to blame on the other. He is about as far from being a leader as it is possible to be.

This bill, which has passed this House and, hopefully, will be rejected in the Senate, is an exercise in how not to do public policy on any level, but particularly when the stakes are so high. There has been his continuous failure to consult anyone affected. The minister has attended I think four ministerial councils since his appointment. He has failed to put a proposal before any one of them. I remind the ministers at the table that the point of the school funding reform was a shared effort to reach a fair funding model. There has been no effort at sharing, no cooperative vision and no shared understanding. In fact, what they have put before us is a comprehensive abandonment of national responsibility for schooling in Australia.

Instead, the Prime Minister hides behind weasel words and human shields. How appalling was it when, in question time today, he defamed Pat Byrne from the WA teachers union? He did not have the decency to apologise when he was proven wrong. He is completely unworthy of the office that he holds. Again, when the government were asked about disability loadings in Tasmania they failed to talk about disability and they failed to talk about Tasmania. How contemptuous can they be? This is why they do not talk about school communities, teachers and our kids.

The government talks about ending the school funding wars. This is a message for government members and school communities around Australia: we will not end the school funding wars by surrendering. We are fighting for our kids' future because that is fundamental for Australia's future. We are fighting for the real Gonski, a vision for needs based sector-blind funding, which is everything this proposal is not.

See this speech in context