Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I'm pleased to speak on the Better and Fairer Schools (Funding and Reform) Bill 2024. In fact, we have a good education system in this country, but it could be a lot better and a lot fairer. The legislation can help us achieve this by increasing funding to public schools—known in my home state of Queensland as state schools—across the country and removing the current funding cap that stopped the Commonwealth from providing additional funding to state schools.

At the moment, the maximum the Commonwealth government can provide to state schools is 20 per cent of the schooling resource standard, and the bill turns that maximum into a minimum. It turns that ceiling into a floor. The bill will enable additional funding to flow to the states and territories who have signed up to the Better and Fairer Schools Agreement, or BFSA. It's a landmark piece of legislation, this, and will allow us to deliver more funding to state schools and tie that funding to reforms to help lift student outcomes, set targets and improve school funding transparency.

The funding is not without conditions. We make no apologies for tying this additional money to reforms that support teachers and helps students catch up on, keep going in and finish school. It includes practical things likes phonics checks, numeracy checks, evidence-based teaching and catch-up tutoring. We want to identify those young people who are students who need additional support, and make sure they get it. We're investing billions of dollars in public schools and we're going to make sure that money makes a difference—clearly, it needs to.

The BFSA is a 10-year agreement developed in collaboration with state and territory governments, First Nations peoples, education representatives and non-government peak education bodies. To date, Western Australia, Tasmania and the Northern Territory have signed up to the Commonwealth's BFSA offer. We've put $16 billion of additional funding for state schools on the table and continue to work with the remaining states and territories to fully fund schools across the country. This will represent the biggest extra investment in state education by the Australian government in the country's history.

The legislation is about fully funding our state schools and tying that funding to reforms to keep students in education to finish their schooling. At the moment, nongovernment schools are funded at the level David Gonski set in the Gonski reforms. They are on track to get there or above it and coming back down to it. Most public schools or state schools aren't. We want parents to have the choice and decide which type of schooling their children should have—government or nongovernment. But we want our state schools to be cathedrals of learning. Children have a right to attend a well-resourced state school. My children attended Raceview State School and Bremer State High School, and they got a great education at both.

The Commonwealth government provides 80 per cent of the schooling resource standard or SRS funding for nongovernment schools, and the states and territories provide the other 20 per cent. For state schools, it's the reverse. The Commonwealth provides 20 per cent of the SRS funding, and the states and territories are supposed to provide another 75 per cent. It means there's a gap of about five per cent. This legislation amends the Australian Education Act 2013 and enables the Commonwealth to lift its share of funding to state schools above 20 per cent. It removes the funding ceiling that stops the Commonwealth doing so. It means that 20 per cent becomes the minimum, not the maximum. It enables the ratcheting up of funding.

This funding will enable the government to fully fund public schools in Western Australia, Tasmania, the Northern Territory and any other jurisdiction that signs up to the Albanese government's state school funding offer as part of the BFSA. It's a 10-year agreement for greater funding certainty. It's important to lock in the Commonwealth government funding for those schools to make sure they don't go backwards. It's increasing transparency, accountability and reporting mechanisms to the parliament by the minister on the progress of the national school and education reform. The legislation enables additional funding to flow to states and territories who sign up.

That's why we're putting this money towards education. It's not just about giving money; it's about making sure kids get quality standards, the best teaching, the best resourcing and the best schooling, which they need. We want to do the same across the country that we are going to do in Western Australia, Tasmania and the Northern Territory, including in my home state of Queensland. I recently met with representatives of the Queensland Teachers' Union, and made it crystal clear that the Commonwealth government is prepared to increase its funding. But the Queensland government needs to do much better. That funding and what it's used for are important. We want children who need our help to get the most, to catch up, to keep up and to finish school. NAPLAN results tell us that one in 10 young people at the moment are below the minimum standard we've set. One in three from poorer families are below that standard. The number of children finishing high school has been going backwards from 83 per cent to 73 per cent over the last seven years, and that's simply not good enough. We need to fix this. We need to turn that around.

I was the first person in my family to attend high school and complete it, let alone go to university. I want other young people in my community to have the same opportunities that I did. That's what this agreement is all about. The sad reality is that how much your parents earn still matters. Your postcode is still critical. Where you live is critical, as is your ethnic background and the religious experience you have. If you're a child from a poorer family, you're less likely to go to child care. You're more likely to fall behind in primary school. You're less likely to finish high school, and you're less likely to go to TAFE or university. It's the same if you're from an ethnic or Indigenous background or if you grew up in rural and regional areas or in the bush.

Our new national school reform agreement, the BFSA, is a real opportunity to do something about that. We want to give our kids the opportunity and tools for success in life—one that doesn't hold anyone back and doesn't leave anyone behind. I want to make some comments about schools in my electorate and in my home state of Queensland, which has just seen a change of government following the election on 26 October. We have a lot of great state schools in my electorate, across Ipswich, the Somerset region and the Karana Downs region. I've been proud to secure funding for upgrades to a number of local schools in recent years as part of our $270 million Schools Upgrade Fund, which is being rolled out by the Albanese government to provide and boost school infrastructure for students. These include several projects I delivered as part of election commitments—namely, $2 million for a community sports hub at Ipswich State High which is about to be built; $100,000 for an outdoor learning space, and toilets and playground upgrades at Springfield Central State School; $60,000 for a prep-safe playground at Brassall State School; and $15,000 for an audiovisual equipment upgrade at Karalee State School.

This year, in the latest round of the Schools Upgrade Fund, Riverview State School, in the eastern part of Ipswich, received $800,000 to upgrade learning and teaching spaces; and little Linville State School, in the upper Somerset region, received $850,000 to upgrade an amenities block, playground and tennis court, and to install a new pathway. I was very pleased to see these two smaller primary schools in working-class suburbs like Riverview and Ipswich and in the rural Somerset region receive this much-needed funding. Small schools like these and the children who attend them need our support in particular.

That's why Labor went to the last election committing to work with the states and territories to get all students an opportunity in life and to get all schools on a pathway to full and fairer funding. Delivering that $16 billion over 10 years in additional funding is critical, and it's on the table now. Of this, an additional $3.1 billion has been offered to the Queensland government for Queensland state schools. It should be taken up. This is because it's the biggest increase in Commonwealth government funding to state schools that we've ever seen. It would mean an extra $3.1 billion. Just imagine the impact that would have on rural and regional parts of Queensland.

Last year the former Queensland Labor government committed to ensuring that every state school was on a path to reach 100 per cent of the SRS. They also said that the states are in the process of lifting their funding to 75 per cent of the SRS. Note that the former government agreed that the share of state schools in 2024 was 70.5 per cent, and that Queensland had lifted its funding share by 1.24 per cent since 2018. The offer on the table had the Commonwealth offering to lift its funding share by 2.5 per cent in the course of the Better and Fairer Schools Agreement. Further, the former state government had cited the need to provide early intervention for Queensland students. The additional Commonwealth government funding will be tied to reforms to improve outcomes for students and their teachers, like in my community of Blair. These reforms will include initiatives to help attract and retain teachers and school leaders, and in-school wellbeing coordinators, and for targeted support for students who fall behind.

That's why the new Queensland government needs to take up this offer and come to the party as well. The reforms are particularly necessary given that the NAPLAN results that the Albanese government released recently showed an increase in the percentage of Queensland students who need additional support in reading. The government will introduce legislation into parliament that will remove the funding cap that stops the Commonwealth providing additional funding to state schools, and that's what this is about. The Northern Territory and Western Australian governments have reached agreements. The new Queensland government needs to do so as well. We need to do a lot better when it comes to this space.

So, in the interests of my local community and the broader Queensland community, I'm urging the new Queensland LNP government and the new minister for education, John-Paul Langbroek, to do the right thing and join in good-faith negotiations. Better still, just go ahead and sign the agreement to ensure full and fairer funding for state schools in Queensland, including in my electorate. I'm the product of Ipswich East State School for my primary education, I graduated from what was then called Bundamba State High School, now Bundamba State Secondary College, and I got a good education. I want young people to get the good education that I received.

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