Melissa Price (Durack, Liberal Party, Minister for Defence Industry) Share this | Hansard source

I thank those members who spoke on the Australian Education Amendment (Direct Measure of Income) Bill 2020. The Australian government is committed to providing every child with a quality education regardless of where they live or what school they attend. Government schools continue to receive record levels of Australian government funding, with an estimated $127.8 billion of recurrent funding expected to flow to government schools from 2018 to 2029, providing strong growth in funding.

This bill introduces a new, more accurate methodology to calculate a non-government school's capacity to financially contribute to the costs of schooling. This methodology was the result of recommendations made by the National School Resourcing Board in its Review of the socio-economic status score methodology: final report, June 2018. The new methodology uses a more robust and reliable set of data to estimate the capacity of parents and guardians to contribute to the cost of schooling, which will ensure more funding flows to the schools that need it most. To ensure that Australian families will have choice and equity in education, the Australian government will provide additional funding to 2029 of $3.4 billion for the direct measured income and $1.2 billion for the Choice and Affordability Fund.

The bill also introduces changes to non-government schools' rates of transition to the nationally consistent Commonwealth share of the schooling resourcing standard for non-government schools. This change will allow schools time to plan and adjust to the new measure. The bill also includes measures to support financial certainty by allowing schools time to plan as the new arrangements are implemented. To further assist the transition, under the Choice and Affordability Fund, the state based Catholic education commissions and associations of independent schools will flexibly administer the fund, including quarantining a percentage of funding that will flow directly to regional and remote schools.

A robust review process will be established by July 2020 to address unexpected or unique circumstances affecting financial capacity of a school's community. The National School Resourcing Board will examine the Schooling Resourcing Standard loadings as they impact students and schools in regional Australia, and the minister will be taking the terms of reference for this work to the next COAG Education Council. The review will commence by June. Further work will be undertaken in consultation with the ABS and the sector to investigate what additional data could be used to further refine how the capacity to contribute is calculated.

Overall, this bill supports the longstanding agreement that funding of non-government schools is a shared responsibility between the families of students attending those schools, the federal government, and the state and territory governments. Subsequently, the new methodology for calculating the capacity of parents and guardians to contribute to non-government schooling will ensure Commonwealth funding is fairer and more targeted. I thank members for their contributions and I commend the bill to the House.

Question negatived.

Original question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.

Message from the Governor-General recommending appropriation announced.

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