Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I'm very proud to speak to this motion that has been moved by the member for Lalor, because it does give me an opportunity to talk about the great changes and improvements that this government has made to education. We believe in universal access to early childhood education. We believe in ensuring that every child, regardless of their postcode, has the resources that they need for schooling. We believe that we should be removing and reducing the fee barriers that are preventing a number of young people from starting a TAFE course or university degree, impacting their ability later in life.

I'll start with school funding. I am the proud mum of a Victorian school student. My daughter, Daisy, started at Camp Hill Primary School on Monday. I was so pleased when I dropped her off that morning to know that the school that Daisy and her friends go to is on the path to receive the same funding as the Catholic and independent schools her other kinder friends have been enrolled in. It is unfair that before this point there was a disproportionate funding arrangement in that independent and Catholic schools were already receiving the school resourcing standard—already receiving 100 per cent of the committed Commonwealth and state government funding throughout Australia—yet our public schools in many of our states were not.

We've corrected that. We've reached an agreement with the state of Victoria, as well as with a number of other states, that sees those public schools now on a pathway to receiving the full resourcing standard. On Friday I had the opportunity to talk about this increased funding and what it would mean for a number of schools in our area with my state counterpart, Maree Edwards, and the principal of Crusoe College. In the principal's words, it will mean 'smaller class sizes'. It will mean 'greater diversity of extracurricular activities and programming' and 'more subject options'. It will mean that every student will get the resources they need.

Fee-free TAFE is an area where Labor and Liberal do divide, on the difference that fee-free TAFE is making. We are in a skills crisis in this country, and the creation of those pre-apprenticeship course offerings and free TAFE opportunities for those skills that we don't talk about a lot—like vet nursing, for example—is encouraging more people to pursue further education and get the skills required in those areas.

There is the apprenticeship payment that our government has announced. Apprentices starting on 1 July will receive a bursary, a scholarship or a payment if they continue to do their studies at six, 12, 18, 24 and 36 months. That top up will help pay for the cost of living so that they keep on their apprenticeship.

With university student debt relief, the changes that have already come in, people in my electorate are saving thousands. In particular, women who've taken time out for caring arrangements are seeing that their debts have been reduced. People who choose to work in a career that pays less than others, who take longer to pay back their debts, will now have less debt to pay back because of our changes. If we're re-elected, there will be a further cut to student debt.

Finally, there's ECEC. Where do we begin with the great reforms that we've brought forward in ECEC? It is a combination of these reforms that needs to be focused on. We are trying to move the sector from the traditional childcare model, which was about making sure that someone was there to care for the kids whilst mum went back to work, to a universal early childhood education system. This is about the education of our youngest Australians, making sure that all families and children have access to at least three days a week. Scrapping the activity test is critical for that. We're paying our early childhood educators more through the changes that we made just last year. We're keeping talented educators in the system. We're making child care cheaper through the reforms of the subsidy. We're working with the states and territories to make sure that we address the desert areas like those in my electorate, where we don't have enough childcare centres—or even a single childcare centre—because of the nature of the town. We're helping to subsidise them so that they exist.

This government is committed to education and to investing in education. We're saying to families—regardless of the age of your child, regardless of your postcode and regardless of the school you choose to send your child to: we are equalling the playing field and making sure that funding is there for you.

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