Dai Le (Fowler, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

Education, as many in the House would agree, is the key to success and a passport for our future. When my mother chose Australia as a settlement country while we were in Hong Kong refugee camps, she told me this was because Australia had the best education system in the world, and that it would guarantee my sisters and me a future. Over the decades we have witnessed the deterioration of our education system, and the inequality faced by students depending on the postcodes of where they live. One of my constituents, Sonia Vujanic, who's studying at Sydney University and was one of the top five finalists in the Raise Our Voice campaign, wrote this:

Transitioning from an underprivileged school in South West Sydney to an acclaimed Australian university was eye-opening. On one hand, I was wonderstruck by the many newly opened doors of opportunity.

But the paradox remained: I became disillusioned upon realising we have a widening educational gap. From resource inequalities to social barriers, how can such a flourishing nation still experience 'a tail of two schools'?

It is indeed a tale of two schools and two cities. Schools like Bonnyrigg High School and St Johns Park High School, in my electorate of Fowler, are still teaching children in demountables. Bonnyrigg High School has 1,650 students but was built for only 800 students. As a result of the overcapacity, 40 demountables have been built, as the school only has 37 classrooms. During summer, many students have had to sit through sweltering and nauseating heat because their classrooms have no air conditioning. Yet in the other city, a private school like the prestigious King's School in north-west Sydney is under investigation for installing a plunge pool for the headmaster and purchasing business-class tickets for staff to attend a regatta in England. No wonder the youth of Fowler feel so let down and disillusioned by our education system.

For a government that claims to be the government for working class Australians and a party that promises equality for all, why is the government giving priority to private schools with a promise of $70.2 billion over the forward estimates when we have a public school system that is literally falling apart at the seams? That is $1.7 billion more than the Morrison government guaranteed in March this year. We've been told it's indexation, and that the government has also provided $1 billion in funding for the public school sector, but this is not enough justification to close the gap between the most disadvantaged and the most privileged.

This year's report on government services showed that 82 per cent of students from low socioeconomic backgrounds attended a public school, and nearly 30 per cent of them did not complete year 12 in 2021. That extra $1.7 billion could be used to make huge improvements to the public school system, including better infrastructure for disadvantaged students, more resources for those from refugee and migrant backgrounds and addressing the workforce shortages to alleviate pressure on the hardworking teachers of Fowler. Of course the government will say that the $70.2 billion is allocated for private schools and that there is a separate state budget for public school education. I would ask the governments, both state and federal, to work together to find equitable funding to ensure our public schools are not left behind. According to a Save Our Schools report the average funding level of a public school in New South Wales is just under 88 per cent of the school resourcing standard. In contrast, New South Wales private schools are generally overfunded, with the average level of funding being nearly 106 per cent. Both levels of government must think long and hard about where they spend our taxpayers' money. The future of Australian depends on it.

I'm not against private schools. They form an important part of our community and they help cultivate the fabric of life and education for many multicultural communities. Of course, I would welcome additional funding measures that would assist my local independent schools, who are in need of additional resources too. We need more transparency on the private school funding system because we all can agree not all schools are the same. We have an increasing gap of inequality, and I would think this government more than others would be supportive of enabling fairer, more equitable and more transparent resourcing that would benefit all Australian children. In the words of Sonia: 'If we aren't breaking stagnant intergenerational cycles of disadvantage, then what is our parliament really accomplishing? How will we ever build the tolerant, resilient society that future generations deserve?'

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