Julian Leeser (Berowra, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I'm proud of the 51 government, Catholic and independent schools in the Berowra electorate. The schools come in all shapes and sizes, from Middle Dural Public School, with fewer than 30 students, to Oakhill College, with 1,600 students—the largest Catholic school in the state—to Cherrybrook Technology High School, the largest high school in New South Wales with 2,500 students. Cherrybrook tech is the same school which the 2018 Australian Local Hero, Eddie Woo, made famous for his approach to mathematics.

All 51 schools are staffed by hardworking teachers who do a fantastic job and who are support by dedicated parents who take an interest in their children's education. As a new father, I'm extremely fortunate to have a network of high-quality schools in my area. When my son grows up, like other people in Berowra we will have an abundance of choice when it comes to selecting an outstanding school for his education.

We are coming to the end of the school year, and I'm looking forward to attending as many presentations as the parliamentary schedule permits and to presenting awards to outstanding students who have achieved excellence, who have shown improvement and who have contributed to their school community. At this time I'm also thinking about the students who are soon to sit their HSC exams across the electorate. I want to wish them the best of luck as they go through this challenging rite of passage and as they make plans for the next phase in their lives, whether it's further education in higher education or vocational education or preparing to enter the workforce.

Over the last decade, the issue which has consumed the public debate on education has been about how our schools are funded. Since the Menzies government, the Commonwealth has provided the lion's share of public funding to non-government schools while the states have provided the funding to government schools. Historically, the Commonwealth has done this because the non-government school system alleviates pressure on the state system while providing choice for families and increased competition in the education sector, which ultimately raises standards across the board. The Gonski review suggested that the Commonwealth needed to play a larger role in funding all schools. I welcome Minister Tehan's recent announcement on school funding, which will guarantee more families a choice on their education options. A vibrant, fully-funded non-government school sector ensures that parents retain the choice of where to send their kids to school.

Our government is providing a record $309.6 billion in recurrent funding to all Australian schools from 2018 to 2029. Our government remains committed to better school-funding arrangements. We will provide an additional $3.2 billion over 10 years to non-government schools identified as needing the most help from 2020 to 2029, with an additional $170.8 million available in 2019 to give funding certainty. A further $1.2 billion will be provided for a fund to address specific challenges in the non-government school sector, such as schools that need help in improving performance, and to deliver choice for communities. The government's spending is growing fastest for government schools, at around 6.3 per cent per student per year from 2019 to 2023, with a growth rate of 5.1 per cent for the non-government sector. So the government funding is growing much more quickly.

One of the greatest differences between our government and the Labor Party is education policy. For decades, Labor's policies have been dictated by militant teachers' unions. These policies are often influenced by whatever fad is sweeping the union movement at the particular time, rather than by what will best equip students to succeed in the wider world. Labor's view is one-dimensional. They believe that more money thrown at the teachers union will massively and miraculously improve education. And while Australians are being beaten by Kazakhstan and Slovenia in international testing, Labor has nothing to say about failing standards and performance. Indeed, some in the Labor movement want to abolish the very exams which help us determine the health of our schooling system.

An absolute focus on funding and Labor's false class war between government and non-government schools won't help Australia to educate our children in a way that will propel them to succeed in a globally competitive world. Technological advancement, globalisation and increasing mobility mean that our children aren't competing against the child in their class or in the school in the next suburb, but rather against children across the world. Our children need the skills to be competitive on a global stage and highly adaptive to keep up with shifts in technology. The rise in technology and artificial intelligence is impacting on the types of jobs required in the future.

We can get too carried away with these notions. Many of the jobs we see today will still be needed in the future, but our education system will need to adapt. Our government policy remains focused on putting students first. We seek to deepen students' subject knowledge, to improve literacy and numeracy standards and to enable students to achieve their potential, and we've made considerable progress since coming to office in 2013. I believe that the policy legacy of the Liberal Party is these measures that the country needs for our students to succeed in the future.

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