Ms Julie Bishop (Curtin, Liberal Party, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Women's Issues) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

The purpose of the bill is to amend the Schools Assistance (Learning Together–Achievement Through Choice and Opportunity) Act 2004, which provides funding to states and territories for government schools and funding for non-government schools for the 2005-08 funding quadrennium. The Australian government will provide a record estimated $33 billion in funding for Australian schools over the four years, 2005-08. This is the largest ever commitment by an Australian government to schooling in Australia.

The act provided for a significant investment towards school infrastructure, providing an additional $1 billion of Australian government funding for the Investing in Our Schools Program. Of this additional funding, $700 million will be provided to state and territory government schools and $300 million to non-government schools. Through this program, the Australian government is responding to the need to restore and build Australia’s school buildings and grounds by injecting much needed additional funding into schools. The standard of school infrastructure can have a marked bearing on teaching and learning in schools. The Australian government already contributes very significantly to school infrastructure funding in both state owned government schools and in non-government schools as a means of improving educational outcomes for Australian children. The $1 billion Investing in Our Schools initiative takes the total Australian government commitment to capital works in schools across Australia to an estimated $2.7 billion over 2005-08. An estimated $1.7 billion is being provided under the Capital Grants Program over 2005-08 to assist the building, maintenance and updating of schools throughout Australia.

One of the most important features of the new initiative is that for state and territory government schools it is the school communities themselves who determine their school infrastructure priorities. For example, it may be that parents identify a need for the installation of airconditioning or heating, or that the school Parents and Friends Association, in conjunction with teachers, determines that funds should be sought to install or upgrade computer facilities or construct outdoor shade structures. Under this program we are empowering the school community—getting teachers, parents, students, counsellors and friends of the school, along with the school principal, involved in making decisions about what infrastructure is right for their school.

A further important feature of this program is that it has started to deliver a whole range of often overlooked, but still important, smaller infrastructure projects that are so often desperately needed by school communities but never seem to make it on the priority list of state education bureaucracies. It is helping to alleviate the ongoing pressure on school communities to undertake their own fundraising.

There has been an overwhelming response for applications under the Investing in Our Schools Program. The Australian government approved 4,034 round 1 projects in 2005, with projects being undertaken in 2,614 schools across Australia. Due to this overwhelming demand, the assessment of 2005 round 2 projects has extended into 2006. The bill amends the act to enable some 2005 funding under the Investing in Our Schools Program to be carried over to 2006. The bill also brings forward allocated program funds from 2008 to 2006 to help meet the sheer volume of need that is clearly evident in the state school sector. We are in the business of getting things done and moving these funds will allow this program to deliver results quickly.

While this bill involves funding for state and territory government schools, it is also important to note that this government, through the Investing in Our Schools Program, is also delivering an additional $300 million in infrastructure funding for non-government schools to support the long-term infrastructure needs of Catholic and independent schools across Australia.

Under the Capital Grants Program an estimated $1.7 billion is being provided over 2005-08 to assist the building, maintenance and updating of schools throughout Australia. An estimated $1.2 billion will be provided for state and territory government schools during 2005-08, whilst an estimated $471 million will be provided for Catholic and independent schools over the same period.

The socioeconomic status (SES) funding arrangements are the basis for Australian government general recurrent grant funding to non-government schools in Australia for 2005-08. Schools are funded on the basis of the SES of the communities from which they draw their students. Schools serving the poorest communities receive the highest level of assistance, while schools serving the wealthiest communities receive the least amount of assistance.

Under the act, non-government special schools automatically have an SES funding level of 70 per cent of the relevant average government school recurrent cost amount, which is the highest general recurrent funding level.

The bill will amend the act to automatically provide maximum general recurrent funding to non-government schools that cater primarily for students with social, emotional or behavioural difficulties who are at risk of leaving mainstream schooling. In some states, recognition as a special school does not include schools that cater for socially and emotionally disturbed students at risk of dropping out of the education system. The amendments to the act correct this anomaly and fulfil the intention of providing maximum general recurrent funding to these schools. This amendment is consistent with the original intention of the SES funding arrangements for these schools.

In order to improve financial management of schools programs funded under the act, the bill also amends the act to provide some flexibility to move program funds between program years. This measure is being implemented by including a regulation-making power in the act.

This amendment supports the intention of the act to maintain security and stability of Australian government financial assistance for the 2005-08 quadrennium.

The bill also amends the act to utilise unspent funding from the pilot Tutorial Voucher Initiative, which was an innovative and practical pilot program conducted in 2005. Under this pilot, a tutorial voucher valued at up to $700 was available for children who were below the year 3 national reading benchmark in 2003. The Australian government intends to use these unspent funds to provide further literacy assistance for students in need. The Australian government became aware that a large number of children in Victoria and Queensland were unable to participate in the pilot due to their respective state governments either not notifying their parents of their eligibility to register for assistance or advising them of their eligibility to register for assistance after the closing date. These state governments had previously agreed to be responsible for notifying parents in a timely way.

Passage of the bill is necessary to ensure that these important initiatives for students, schools and school communities can be implemented to continue to support the improvement in school outcomes across Australia.

I commend this bill to the House and present the explanatory memorandum.

Debate (on motion by Mr Edwards) adjourned.