Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I thank my good friend, the effervescence and ever-industrious member for Corangamite, for moving this motion, as it gives me the opportunity to reflect on the Albanese Labor government's commitment to and action on education. As a former high school teacher, education is a subject that is close to my heart. I'm looking forward to speaking in support of the Better and Fairer Schools (Funding and Reform) Bill this week. Education is the great transformational opportunity. Education has been a key priority for this government since the end of the antediluvian times, back in May 2022. Our reform focus has encompassed the whole spectrum from boosting support in the early childhood sector through to enabling greater access to postschool education—from ABCs through to PhDs and everything in between.

This focus was certainly needed when Labor came into government. After nearly a decade of coalition government, the sector was neglected, underfunded and underloved. Young Australians paid the price, with the Productivity Commission finding that the equity gap widened under the coalition's school agreement. To translate what that means, the LNP were white-anting our egalitarian society. This same schools agreement, the National School Reform Agreement, did not enable any public schools outside of the ACT to reach their set Schooling Resource Standard, thus ignoring the economic and social benefits that Gonski said would flow from such investment. The former government's flippant disregard for the Gonski recommendations from 2011 meant that public schools across the country were underfunded.

Remember, the Schooling Resource Standard is an estimate of the level of government funding that a school needs to meet the educational requirements of its students. Remember, all students take baggage from their parents and homes to school. Some is nice baggage, some is horrible baggage, but all students carry some of their home environment through the school gate each day. Under the coalition, students from disadvantaged backgrounds were found to be three times more likely to fall behind. Over 85,000 students did not meet basic literacy or numeracy standards. As a nation that values learning, this is a shameful record.

You can trust a Labor government to take action on inequity, and that is at the heart of the Better and Fairer Schools Agreement. It will replace the ineffective and damaging National School Reform Agreement at the end of this year and will run until the end of 2034. It will invest $16 billion to meet Gonski targets and to ensure fair school funding. That means every school will be achieving 100 per cent of its fair funding level. Under this agreement, the Commonwealth will contribute half of that five per cent gap in SRS—the biggest ever increase in funding to public schools—with the states and territories also contributing.

Obviously, as their name suggests, state schools are run by states. The Minister for Education, Jason Clare, has already negotiated deals with WA, Tasmania and the Northern Territory. This means that schools in WA and Tasmania will be fully funded from 2026 and that those in the Northern Territory will be fully funded by 2029. This is ahead of the plan by two decades and is entirely necessary to provide equity for children who are experiencing disadvantage. Minister Clare has said that this funding is not a blank cheque. Crucially, it's tied to outcomes-focused reforms. We want the community to have full transparency about how their taxpayer dollars are changing young lives. This means measures such as early assessment, in year 1, of phonics and numeracy to identify children who need additional support before they get left behind. As a high school teacher, I can say that I definitely believe that 'a stitch in time saves nine' when it comes to kids.

The Better and Fairer Schools Agreement is also focused on shoring up a strong and sustainable workforce. One of the first actions taken by Minister Clare was the development of the National Teacher Workforce Action Plan. Even in Moreton, an inner-city seat, some of my schools still have trouble tracking down teachers. This plan recognises five priority areas: increasing the number of teachers, strengthening teacher education at universities, retaining current teachers, elevating the profession to the respected and valued status it deserves, and mapping out future workforce requirements. This has translated into 4,000 additional university places for starting a teaching degree and $56 million for Commonwealth teaching scholarships designed to attract enthusiastic and committed students.

Yesterday, I went to my good friend John Carozza's 60th birthday party. We met on my first day at teachers college back in 1983. The table was full of teachers: John, Brendan, Fiona, Craig, Kylie, Rex, Liz. We were all talking about a lifetime of teaching. John Carozza is an exceptional teacher at QACI in Kelvin Grove. We were talking about what we need to do to retain teachers and also inspire students at schools to go into a teaching career—a strong, noble career. It is something that my youngest son has committed to doing, and I hope he fares well.

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