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

Well, he obviously met some teachers in his electorate and turned up to a school or two, I would hope, and heard the feedback when teachers said, 'You know what? You expect a lot from us. How about you start investing in us?' This side of the chamber is committed to that. Over the last six years, we've continuously seen the government fail students. What I noted on this debate, looking at the speakers list today, is that there is a big fat zero for the number of people opposite interested in speaking about this issue—situation normal. There are no talking points on this one today! No—wait! It's all record funding. Hold your horses; cool your jets. We've got record funding. But test results over the last few years show the federal government is failing to reverse the alarming declines in reading, writing and maths. If the schools are being properly funded, I'm not sure what to make of our education future under this government. Kids in every state and territory are going backwards in some of the critical areas because we are not funding enough at a Commonwealth level. It's that clear. We want our kids to get the basics, because we want them to have a rich learning experience for the rest of their lives, but, if we can't get the fundamentals right for the schools that most need it—the disadvantaged schools—the sector-blind funding that is required, it's pretty hard to succeed in more sophisticated subjects, which we want them to offer as students get older and more mature through the schooling system.

After six years of the current federal government, there's been enough time for a student to start and finish high school. Despite thousands doing so, we saw the spectacle of the education minister this week. I don't know what that answer was in question time, when he spent about two minutes just saying 'Um' and 'Ah'. You may be a student up there from the mighty St Thomas Aquinas School in Springwood, out in force and ably remembered by your great representative, the member for Macquarie, Ms Templeman. She knows, as every school knows, that, we've got a job to do here to make sure that we deliver for your schools. The member for Macquarie and other colleagues, including the member for Lilley, the member for Gilmore and the member for Dunkley, are education experts on this side of the chamber. We have a principal of over 27 years. I'm amazed at some of the talent that we see on this side of the chamber. We have the member for Lalor, who has lived and breathed this experience. It's about time those opposite got their note pads out and listened to what it is like for a teacher in our classrooms right here in Australia.

At a time when we should be increasing education funding to meet the needs of the 21st century, this government has come up short, and it's not just in Australia's poor results where we're seeing a problem; when it comes to the marks for getting into teaching, they're failing too. Schools are being starved of the support they need. It's a disastrous combination.

But the failure on education funding doesn't stop there. At a time when we've got close to two million Australians who haven't got a job or want to work more hours, and an economy that is crying out for skilled workers—with skill shortages across mechanics, plumbers, electricians, carpenters, hairdressers, pastry chefs and welders—we learnt this week in Senate estimates that the government has significantly underspent on the TAFE and training budget. The government's response on that was: 'There's not the demand.' Are you kidding me—'there's not the demand'? Do any of those members opposite actually go into workplaces, and sit down with employers and talk to owners of businesses? I don't know about you, or what alternative universe they may be living in, Mr Deputy Speaker, but people are crying out to make sure that they do have enough tradies in their workplaces, and they don't have enough support.

When you look at the actual figures under this government—all of those sitting there are culpable—there are now 150,000 fewer apprentices and trainees than when the LNP came to government. That's 150,000 fewer apprenticeships and traineeships happening in this country. If you were to listen to the government's spin and talking points—which have been splashed across every newspaper in the country—you would think that the economy was travelling well; that's what they allege. Well, if it's travelling well and it's building, wouldn't you think businesses would need access to apprenticeships? Wouldn't you think that businesses would need to grow? So what is going on over there? The number of Australians doing apprenticeships and traineeships is lower than it was a decade ago. So, 10 years ago, we had more people in the apprenticeship, training and TAFE system, and since then we've had population growth—and yet now we've got fewer people in that system than 10 years ago. There are now more people dropping out of apprenticeships and traineeships than finishing them. Businesses are crying out for trained staff. The Australian Industry Group says that 75 per cent of businesses surveyed are struggling to find the qualified workers they need.

This is all in lockstep with what the government has done to university funding. Since the election of the government in 2013, universities and students have been under constant attacks, with cuts, attempts at fee deregulation and policy chaos and uncertainty. You never hear anyone from the other side actually talk about university funding. You hear about their wacky, weird ideas about Western civilisation as being taught at universities or what shouldn't be taught or who's being taught communist dictatorship nonsense, in op-ed after op-ed from all those crazy right-wingers on the other side of the chamber; no-one actually talks about—oh, they're proud of it! They're all nodding and going along with it: 'We want to have a debate about Western civilisation in universities'! Start talking about funding universities! 'Ahem, cough, cough'—no response.

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