Alby Schultz (Hume, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is also to the Prime Minister. Has the Prime Minister’s attention been drawn to reports that some state governments are charging an administrative fee to schools that have been allocated a grant by the Australian government under the Investing in Our Schools program? Does this mean that less money is going directly to schools for their projects?

John Howard (Bennelong, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I regret to say to the member for Hume that my attention has been drawn. I think it is an outrage that the parents of children attending government schools all around Australia are not getting the full value of the $1 zillion Investing in Our Schools program in government schools and low-fee independent schools that I announced at the time of the 2004 election. We have done this because the states have not invested enough in government schools. We have done this because the rate of increase of state government investment in government schools has been slower than the rate of increase of federal government investment. I think it is outrageous that, as you move around the country, you can find countless examples. There is an example in Western Australia where figures of up to 16 per cent are being deducted. An example was quoted in the Sunday Telegraph, drawn to my attention by the member for Hume who asked the question, of the Iemma government deducting about $600,000 from about 30 schools. These are basic provisions that we are making. We are filling the space that should have been occupied by the state governments and they have got the nerve and the effrontery to charge the schools for administering our program. Our program was intended to help the schools. I call on the state governments to stop docking from Australian parents the money that we are providing because they have not done their job.