Kay Elson (Forde, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is addressed to the Minister for Education, Science and Training. Would the minister advise the House how the government is assisting schools, especially in my state of Queensland? Is the minister confident that state governments are matching the increased effort by the Commonwealth?

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

I thank the member for Forde for her question. It is worth reminding the House that state governments are in fact primarily responsible for funding state government schools. They own and operate schools and ought to be primarily responsible for funding state government schools. But increasingly the Australian government has been called upon to fund state government schools where there are failures on the part of state governments. In every budget since 1996 the Australian government has increased the funding for state government schools, even though over that period the enrolments have remained static and are in fact predicted to decline. In the period 1996 to the current date the Australian government has increased funding to Queensland state government schools by some 137 per cent, so there has been a massive increase by the Australian government. But, if we take this year as an example, we see that this year the Australian government’s increase in funding for Queensland government schools is 11 per cent. If the Queensland government had matched the Australian government’s percentage increase, that would have meant an extra $218 million from the Queensland government for Queensland school students in Queensland government schools.

What we are seeing here is a failure on the part of the Queensland government to match the Australian government percentage increases. They are already failing Queensland school students, because if they had matched our funding it would be an extra $218 million. Now the spend per student in a Queensland government school is some $280 less than the average of all other states. In addition, under the Australian government’s $1 billion Investing in Our Schools program, we have now invested a further $57 million in Queensland state government schools. In rounds 1 and 2 of the Investing in Our Schools program we have awarded over 1,000 applications for schools requiring such basic infrastructure items as support for their ovals, libraries, computers and carpets. In round 3, which has just closed, there are over 2,000 applications from Queensland state government schools. There are only 1,280 Queensland state government schools, so essentially every government school in Queensland is turning to the Australian government for help. So I call upon the Queensland education minister to use some of the $8 billion that Queensland gets under the GST and invest in Queensland government schools, match the percentage increase that the Australian government provides for Queensland state government schools and support Queensland schoolchildren.

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

Mr Speaker, I ask that further questions be placed on the Notice Paper.