Matt Burnell (Spence, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I have to be honest here. I feel for the member for Nicholls. I reckon he would have come up with this motion and deliberated on it with his colleagues towards the end of last year. I'll at least give him credit here: the subject matter is important. It's important that the classrooms our children develop in are brought to the attention of this House. The Albanese Labor government is committed to advancing our communities from the ground up through education. For communities like the northern suburbs of Adelaide—and I've said this a few times now—education is the key to opportunity. It is the circuit breaker for disadvantage. It serves to lift individuals and families out of intergenerational cycles of poverty. Beyond that, thriving countries like ours are built off the backs of teachers, who will often give the majority of their lifetime towards educating our children. The education system deserves national attention to continue this progress we make, both as a national collective and as individuals, and this motion helps to do so.

I'll also give credit to the member for Nicholls for another reason, and that's going back to the timing of this motion, because just a couple of weeks ago my home state of South Australia—our home state, Deputy Speaker Sharkie—signed a historic agreement with the federal Labor government, to fully fund public schools to bring our classrooms to the level they need to be at, to address the core of the issue the honourable member raises in his motion and to finally correct the record after years of ignorance from those opposite. That agreement was for the federal government to come together with the Malinauskas state government in South Australia and cover 25 per cent of the schooling resource standard. This is a federal Labor government doing what it does best: meeting the needs of our communities, including my community, where help is needed most on this front. This is an investment of an estimated $1 billion in additional Commonwealth funding over the next 10 years, which represents the biggest investment into South Aussie public schools in the history of the Australian government. This is a federal Labor government that gives a Gonski—one that is committed to a genuine lift in the standard of education in this country, to tackle disadvantage head on and level the playing field.

Going back to the timing of this one, I reckon that if the member for Nicholls could, in the words of the great Cher, turn back time and find a way, he'd find a way to change this one up a bit, because I'm now going to chart what's caused the issues the member raises. Those issues are poor behaviour in classrooms, the negative impact on learning outcomes because of it, worsened morale in the workplace for teachers, and constant retention headaches for schools, which are especially prevalent in my community. Those opposite sat on our hands and watched these issues for nine long years, and Labor is getting things back on track. That journey started in 2011 with the Gonski review, which made a recommendation that public schools receive 100 per cent funding and that that funding go towards things like phonics tests, numeracy and literacy tests, and having support staff in classrooms to help with unruly children.

That takes me to one of the primary schools in my electorate—one that I'm very fond of. I recently had the great good fortune of taking the Minister for Education Jason Clare, there to meet the fantastic principal, Julie Murphy, her team and the wonderful students who go to learn at that primary school. Julie Murphy and her staff go above and beyond every single day to meet the learning needs of the young people who go to that school in my community. When I say 'go above and beyond', I don't just mean turning up and delivering classes. Julie Murphy and her team go out into the community of Elizabeth Vale, knocking on doors and getting young children dressed and brought to the school to make sure that they have the best education they possibly can. This sits outside of what the SRS is fundamentally there to do, but this is what great teachers do. This is what great leaders in our education system do. They 'give a Gonski'. They take the essence of education in its purest form and they know what that means for the young people that they're teaching. Without principals like Julie Murphy, and her team, we are worse off. This SRS funding is going to help with the retention of fantastic leaders and teachers at schools like the Elizabeth Vale Primary School, and I commend this motion.

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