Katie Allen (Higgins, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to support this bill, because every child has the right to a great education and every parent has the right to make a choice about where their child attends school. This bill seeks to enable funding that is fair and transparent and allocated according to the needs of the school community and the child. Independent and faith based schools have always provided a choice for parents to pay for their child's education rather than attend a publicly funded state school. They should be able to continue to do so. Like our two-tiered health system, the Australian school system provides a safety net for some and choice for those who are willing to pay.

The point of this bill is that for the very first time the bill will enable government funding to be directly assessed on a needs basis. By 2029 students with the same need in the same sector will attract the same level of support from the Commonwealth, regardless of the state or territory where they live or their background. Through this bill the Australian government is introducing a more accurate methodology to calculate the capacity of a non-government school community to contribute to the cost of schooling. By creating a more targeted and directed measure of income, schools will be able to receive a fairer proportion of the funding pool and we can ensure that funding goes to the school and children who need it most.

The new method follows the recommendations made in June 2018 by the National School Resourcing Board review into the socioeconomic score, or SES, that funding is based on. This board was made up of members nominated by government, Catholic and independent sectors.

Previously, the SES was calculated using certain indicators, including the average income and other characteristics, collected by the Australian Bureau of Statistics in the area where the student lived. This was based on the SA1 subsection of the statistical area of the ABS. This meant that the indicators were averaged using data that was not necessarily representative of the families of the children that went to the school but, rather, representative of the geographical area in which the school resided. By using a geographic area, the indicators did not build an accurate description of a specific family's ability to contribute to school fees when enrolled at an independent or faith based school.

By contrast, this bill will link the funding model for non-government schools to the parental income of the families of students at each individual school under the new direct-measure-of-income score, making use of income data and other data held by the ABS. This is very important because it will enable funding to be targeted and appropriate. But the Morrison government will not just set and forget this funding model. We have put in place a number of measures to ensure that there's a transition process for schools to this new setting—and this is important. I know this because I have been chair of a faith based school council. I know how important it is, with regard to a funding model, that there is surety and that there is a transparent process so that schools can have their business plan argued out for the future.

This record funding that will be distributed for the new direct-measure-of-income approach will consist of an extra $0.2 billion in 2018 and 2019 for schools in the lead-up to the change, and the establishment of a $1.2 billion Choice and Affordability Fund from 2020 to 2029 to assist schools with the transition. This is good policy, this is worthwhile policy, and I fully support and endorse it.

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