Belinda Neal (Robertson, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Students in Australia are already being helped to move further into the digital technology revolution that is happening around us. To help achieve this goal, the government’s digital education revolution allocated $1.2 billion over five years to bring computers and broadband access technology to secondary schools. This program is well underway. In my own electorate of Robertson, the computers in schools program has already seen an investment of $2.4 million for schools in my local area. This information communications and technology initiative has so far formed one of the major platforms of the Rudd Labor government’s education revolution.

The education tax refund is another of the government’s commitments, one which will transform working families’ access to quality education in Australia. By providing help for working parents with their everyday educational expenses, including the costs of purchasing computer technology, the measures contained in the Tax Laws Amendment (Education Refund) Bill 2008 will ensure that kids have access to the revolution that is at hand in Australia’s classrooms.

The costs of quality education are forever increasing. A survey by the Brotherhood of St Laurence in 2007 found that 72 per cent of respondents could not afford items that would ‘improve the education experience of their children’. Two-thirds of these respondents did not have a home computer with internet access. About 60 per cent had difficulty paying for books and almost half reported difficulty paying for educational equipment. These figures illustrate quite clearly the difficulties encountered by low-income families in particular when faced with the costs of schooling their children. The ETR plan seeks to address these pressing needs. Not only will the plan bring practical educational tools such as books and computers into the homes of millions of Australian students, it will enhance equity in access to quality education across Australia.

While the bill before us today does not cover all educational expenses, it provides a valuable level of support for more than 2.7 million students in need of educational equipment. Under the ETR plan, eligible expenses for the purposes of the education tax refund include laptops, home computers, printers, paper, education software, school textbooks and associated materials and trade tools. This includes the purchase, lease, hire or hire-purchase costs of these items. Another significant element of the package is that expenses associated with establishing and maintaining a home internet connection are also included.

The criteria for eligibility for the ETR have been made as broad as possible to include as many categories of students and families as possible. Parents and others entitled to family tax benefit part A and who have children undertaking primary or secondary school studies will be eligible for the ETR. In addition, those who would be eligible for family tax benefit part A in respect of a child but for the fact that they or the child are in receipt of other payments, such as youth allowance, disability support pension or Abstudy living allowance, are also eligible. Students who are living independently from their parents may also be eligible for the education tax refund for their own education expenses.

The ETR will apply to eligible expenses incurred from 1 July 2008 and will be claimable when income tax returns are submitted. Therefore, the ETR will be claimable from 1 July 2009 for the 2008-09 tax income year. With this in mind, I will be and have already been reminding the constituents in my electorate of Robertson to hang onto their tax receipts which they have already collected so they can claim the expenses in their next return. People who do not pay tax can still access the education expenses refund. Those people who are not required to lodge an income tax return will be able to claim ETR entitlements by lodging a separate form at the end of each year.

As I have already mentioned, the ETR plan has been designed to allow as many families as possible to gain a tax offset under the scheme. In accordance with this principle, students living independently from their parents may also be eligible to claim a refund for their education expenses. The bill has also made provision for home-schooled students to access ETR benefits, and there are in-built provisions that cater for families that have shared care arrangements for children undertaking education. Provision is also made for situations where children leave or enter schooling during a given financial year and for those students in transition from primary school to high school.

In a climate of growing pressures on working families, the Rudd Labor government’s commitment to easing the burden on these families is to be commended. Access to quality affordable education is one of the hallmarks of a civilised, equitable and productive society. By ensuring that the education expenses incurred by working families—and especially low-income families hit hard by increasing cost of living pressures—are offset by these tax refunds, the Rudd Labor government is demonstrating its commitment to strengthening and improving Australia’s education system.

The measures contained in this bill will do much to increase the participation of our young people in education and training. They will assist students to remain in education for longer and to participate more productively in the full ambit of learning activities provided in our schools. The benefits to students of having access to the full range of information and computer technologies—including home computers, internet access, quality books and all the other things I have mentioned—will, over time, bring great benefit to our society.

The benefits to a low-income family of receiving a tax refund to offset the costs of buying and maintaining a home computer with internet access are clear and demonstrable. Such home-based educational facilities are no longer luxuries for Australian families putting their kids through school. Rather, in this digital age, they are now vital tools for full participation in quality education. In accordance with commitments given to the Australian people, it is this government’s intention that every Australian family have access to these tools.

The education tax refund will increase the productivity of the nation by ensuring that our students are better skilled and fully able to take their place in the education revolution. This bill is framed with participation and productivity as its major goals, but the measures provided by this bill are also a means to promote equity in access to education, a goal that is uppermost in the policy formation of the Rudd government.

For the working families in my electorate of Robertson, the issue of education expenses and other cost-of-living stresses is very much a major concern. My office has dealt with many inquiries from concerned parents about the cost pressures of educating their children, and one of their most worrying concerns is ensuring that their kids keep abreast of the new developments in computing, the internet and information technology that are now so integral to school based education. The ETR scheme will ease the burden on these families. These measures will be particularly welcomed by low-income families. The bill also has the potential to break the intergenerational cycles of poverty that afflict so many families, by making it easier for families to maintain children in education. And it is education and training which provide the life pathways out of disadvantage and into fuller participation in society.

The Tax Laws Amendment (Education Refund) Bill 2008 is legislation that puts in place a fundamental building block of the Rudd government’s education revolution and therefore better participation. It is another commitment by this government to strengthening the nation’s education system and equipping our students for the future. The measures deserve the full support of all members, and I commend the bill to the House.

Nick Champion (Wakefield, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to support the Tax Laws Amendment (Education Refund) Bill 2008. My electorate of Wakefield has a great many qualities and attributes, but it also has its share of problems, particularly in terms of access to education and opportunity. The 2006 Australian Bureau of Statistics Socio-Economic Indexes for Areas make it alarmingly clear that there are parts of the urban area of my electorate that are profoundly disadvantaged, and low educational qualifications are a key indicator of that profound disadvantage. At just 11 per cent, my electorate of Wakefield has the third lowest higher education participation rate in the country, which is also, I think, a disturbing indicator of disadvantage. University education is not for everyone, and that is why we are obviously putting resources into trades education and technical careers. In the north of Adelaide, my electorate is fortunate enough to have had the issue around the northern Adelaide technical college resolved and its future secured.

So we know a trade is as good as a degree and that educational qualifications can be a key determinant of people’s incomes and opportunities. But I know that there are many people in my electorate who are prevented from going to university or TAFE, or even year 12, and attaining educational qualifications simply due to their economic circumstances or, frequently, their geographical circumstances. Many country kids face a pretty big commute or have to leave home to do tertiary study. So geography can be a barrier to education, as can economic reasons. We know that there are many families who simply cannot afford some of the basic resources their kids need to really make a go of it at school. This bill is about removing some of those early barriers to people gaining a year 12 qualification.

This bill fulfils a $4.4 billion budget commitment to create a new education tax refund, a refundable tax offset of 50 per cent of eligible education expenses for children undertaking primary and secondary school studies. As I said before, it aims to knock out the barriers that exist for some schoolchildren and their families. Eligible families will be able to claim 50 per cent of relevant education expenses, up to $750 for each child undertaking primary school, to provide a maximum tax offset of $375 per child per year. For children undertaking secondary school studies, families will be able to claim 50 per cent of their eligible expenses, up to $1,500 per child, with a maximum tax offset of $750 per child per year. The measures outlined in this bill will help about 1.3 million families—that is about 2.7 million students—to afford the basics of a good education: textbooks, stationery, trade tools, laptops and home computers. Importantly, the bill also allows for home internet connections to be claimed. This is a particularly important issue, I think. Increasingly, the divide in the future will be not just about income but also about access to information. We do risk a divide in that area, and it is one of the reasons we are so passionate about broadband.

To give you an idea of how this gap is already there, one of the local primary schools in my electorate did a survey of their school population. That survey revealed that only 25 per cent of children in the school population had a computer at home and just 12 per cent had access to the internet at home. That is a figure which is staggeringly low given the importance of the internet and it obviously has a massive impact on their future opportunities and their ability to utilise the information technology present at their school as well.

This bill does go some way to address that problem. Families who may be eligible include: families who receive tax benefit part A in respect of one or more children undertaking primary or secondary school studies; those parents with one or more children who would be eligible for the purposes of family tax benefit part A but for the fact that they or their child receive certain payments or allowances, for example, youth allowance, disability support pension or Abstudy; those students undertaking primary or secondary school studies and receiving an independent rate of income support payments.

There are also measures which allow the refund to be taken up by families who have shared care arrangements and those families who choose to home-school their children. Particularly with the shared-care arrangements, I think that this is a really good recognition that many families now are living very differently from the way they did in the past. We now have the phenomenon of constellation families where people often have very complex shared-care arrangements often between one or more former partners and they may have arrangements that are even more different. So it is good to see the new government acknowledging that reality. In addition, students who go from primary school to high school in a single financial year can claim the full education tax refund based on the secondary school rate.

For Labor, and for this government, education and access to opportunity are the foundations of any decent society. As I said before, in my electorate, there are pockets of profound disadvantage and intergenerational unemployment. After 12 years of inaction, there is great cynicism in some of these areas about government solutions, and this bill does represent real practical assistance which will go directly to families. It provides also real tax assistance to those people who already do the right thing and support their children’s education.

The reasons behind the ABS statistics, which I talked to before, are complex. They need a concerted approach. This bill is a beginning to that, I think. But more broadly the government’s education revolution will play a big role in addressing educational disadvantage in my electorate and I look forward to seeing progress in the future. So I commend the bill to the House and I certainly acknowledge that this bill will help struggling families in my electorate.

Janelle Saffin (Page, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I speak in support of the government’s Tax Laws Amendment (Education Refund) Bill 2008, a bill that amends the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 and, among other things, introduces the education tax refund. I have to say as a bit of a side issue when looking at the fact that it does amend the Income Tax Assessment Act, that we all know the income tax assessment acts have grown bigger and bigger over the years. This bill also makes consequential amendments to a range of other acts, but it is really to the education tax refund that I will direct my comments.

The purpose is to give expression to government policy and government objectives on educational matters that put more resources in the hands of students and also some extra money into the pockets of families and carers. The education tax refund will provide a 50 per cent refundable tax offset for eligible education expenses up to $750 for children in primary studies and $1,500 for children in secondary studies. Eligible expenses are defined as follows: computers and computer related equipment such as printers and disability aids and also associated costs; home internet connection; school textbooks and other paper-based school learning material including stationery; and course prescribed tools of trade. And I imagine that there will be some working-out in that last area because it would be impossible to list all course prescribed tools of trade in the amending bill. That definition will become obvious as parents and carers put in their claims, otherwise the amending bill could be quite lengthy.

The bill also sensibly makes provision for a transition period when a student transitions from primary to secondary education during a financial year. The education tax refund will apply at the secondary rate for the entire year, which is a really important provision. Most importantly, education expenses in excess of the taxpayer’s offset limit for a financial year can be transferred to the subsequent income year, and this is a welcome provision.

What I did not say at the outset was that as long as the primary and secondary studies are recognised, the tax offset will apply. This of course will include distance education such as home schooling, which is a good thing. It has to apply to all of the approved areas of primary and secondary studies. It also applies to families and parents and carers and also to shared care. That is important given the arrangements that we have in families these days. Again, that aspect often takes some negotiation, as we all know, but it is very important that it is provided for in this bill.

Some other key features of this bill are as follows. It is a tax refundable offset, which means any part of the offset that cannot be used to reduce tax liability is paid out to the taxpayer. An approved care organisation is also eligible to claim the tax offset—that is, obviously, if a child in their care makes them eligible to receive the family tax benefit part A payments. It extends to families whose child would entitle them to family tax benefit A except that they are in receipt of payments such as youth allowance or disability support pension. Also, students in receipt of certain payments such as youth allowance and disability support pension who satisfy the independence requirement relevant to the amount of payment they receive are eligible for their own education expenses—another important provision in the bill.

I would add that it is important to note that, in terms of what is eligible, there are expenses that are not eligible expenses for the purposes of the tax offset, as we would rightly expect. They include school fees, and I have a view about school fees. My view is not related to this bill, but I just do not think that school fees should exist at all because, when we are talking about inclusion in education, wherever it is, school fees can put an enormous burden on some families and cause some social exclusion. Expenses that are not eligible also include school uniform expenses and student attendance at school based extracurricular activities such as excursions. Again, my personal view on this is the same as the comment I made about school fees, but that is not related directly to the bill. Other expenses that are not eligible are tutoring costs, game consoles and school subject levies—for example, payment for consumables for particular subjects et cetera. The tax offset cannot be claimed for an educational expense to the extent that the expense is tax deductible or subject to another tax offset. That is to be expected as well—that there would be no double dipping, as we call it.

I have been listening to other members in the debate, and I listened the other day to the member for Mayo. He was talking about the importance of education and also, as a general comment, about the importance of preschool education. What I would say there is that preschool is certainly an important component of lifelong learning and education, and it is part of the Rudd Labor government’s education revolution policy agenda to provide 15 hours per week in preschool for four-year-olds. That is a matter that will be worked out over the next period, and it is being worked on now by the parliamentary secretary. I just wanted to make the point that it is a key part of education and the education revolution.

In my concluding comments on this bill, I would like to say that education is important, and all members agree. What we disagree about is how we achieve it. Education is what gives us individual opportunities in life regarding work, careers and the way we live, and it is what gives society and communities within society opportunities to be prosperous, productive and peaceful. Each government and each major party has a view about our education system and how it should be, and that is always the issue around which we have contestation and debate, although there is a lot that we can agree on. We disagree about the way certain things should operate. In the Labor Party there is a strong commitment to education as a means, in a sense, to achieving inclusion, equity, access to opportunities and, indeed, a better life. Education has given us opportunities to better ourselves, as many of us have done, and as I have done.

We are committed, as well, to social inclusion, for reasons that are obvious, and we in the Rudd Labor government match this commitment with action. The education revolution is evidence of this. Other examples are this bill that is being debated now, computers in high school, transparency and accountability from all schools, a national curriculum, the preschool commitment and the tax offset. We are committed to making sure that families can better educate their children and provide their children with better opportunities and better access, and this is precisely what this bill does. With those comments, I commend this bill.

Robert Oakeshott (Lyne, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to strongly endorse the Tax Laws Amendment (Education Refund) Bill 2008 and to put it on record that I believe that on the mid North Coast of New South Wales this will make a significant difference in many households within our region and therefore will make a significant difference in building a better Australia. In the year 2008 I do not think we can claim the title of the clever country, nor do I think that we in the region of the mid North Coast of New South Wales can claim the title of the clever coast. It is unfortunate, and I do think we have some substantial challenges before us with regard to increasing the investment and the value placed on education both for individuals within regions and within Australia and in communities in general.

I say that looking at some of the figures with regard to the challenges in education for Australia, and I concur that they are a mirror image of life on the mid North Coast—issues such as Australia struggling to lift school completion rates. By comparison, other OECD countries have managed to progressively improve school completion rates, but these rates have barely shifted in Australia over the past 15 years. A dimension of this is reflected in the fact that amongst 25- to 34-year-olds Australia now ranks 20th amongst the OECD countries in terms of school completion. That should be a stark reminder to everyone in this place of the challenges ahead. Some other figures that are reflected both Australia-wide and region-wide on the mid North Coast are that the ABS recently estimated that 46 per cent of adults, or seven million Australians, had poor or very poor skills across one or more of the five skill domains of prose literacy, document literacy, numeracy, problem solving and health literacy. This means that they did not attain the skill levels regarded by most experts as a suitable minimum for coping with the increasing and complex demands of modern life and work.

Early school leavers are especially likely to have lower levels of literacy and numeracy skills. They also have much more difficulty in changing jobs within a working life, something that all of us should recognise is happening more and more in the average working career. I also raise the issue of Australia’s total public spending on education, which, at 4.8 per cent of GDP, is below the OECD average of 5.4 per cent and well below countries such as the Scandinavian countries, France, New Zealand, the UK and the USA.

I think it is fair to say not only as the representative of a region like the mid-North Coast but also as a member of parliament contributing to the future of Australia that we have got some enormous challenges in front of us in lifting standards of education across the board. That is why I strongly endorse this legislation. I think it will make a difference on the ground in a number of different ways. I am particularly pleased to see that it provides a tax rebate of up to $750 per child for primary school families and of up to $1,500 per child for secondary school families.

I concur with what the member for Wakefield mentioned: the key part of this legislation is that it provides assistance for internet connections. I have just recently been through an election campaign. I walked into a house in what was a relatively urbanised community at North Haven on the mid-North Coast. I was surprised to find the family—which had a year 9 student at one of the local high schools, Camden Haven High School—on dial-up. That is technology which is at least 15 years off the pace. It makes it incredibly difficult for this young woman to compete in the education market and therefore to compete for jobs into the future. Compare her existence with the internet speeds which we have got in this building, for example. It is shameful that we have that inequity in places within Australia. I am particularly pleased that home internet connections are part of the tax refund and I will certainly be encouraging as many people within my region as possible to take that up.

The taxpayers who are entitled to the ETR include those in receipt of a family tax benefit part A payment for a child; taxpayers or their child who receive other payments that preclude them from receiving family tax benefit part A; or taxpayers who are independent students and receive payments such as youth allowance, disability support pension or Abstudy living allowance. The ETR will apply to eligible expenses incurred from 1 July this year and will be available when income tax returns are submitted. Therefore, the ETR will be claimable from 1 July 2009. I am just flagging these for my electorate. Some of the eligible expenses include the purchase, lease or hire-purchase of equipment, including computers and computer related equipment such as printers, disability aids and associated costs; as I mentioned before, a home internet connection; computer software; school textbooks and other paper based school learning material, including stationery; and course prescribed tools of trade. This is of great value to a lot of households within my region and, I suspect, right throughout Australia.

I have been in this job for seven weeks and I think that every second public comment I have made is in regard to education. I talked at length about skills based training and the importance of it on the mid-North Coast. I have some issues with regard to the future of Australian technical colleges in Port Macquarie and Taree and the role that TAFE and the school system play in delivering a better skills based training model for our region. I have talked about Indigenous education and participated in some very good and well attended Deadly Days throughout the region within the North Coast Institute of TAFE, and I have tried to get better Indigenous engagement in the delivery of education generally. I have just put my name down to go on the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Education and Training. I spoke at length during my first speech about the importance of education on the mid-North Coast and the motto that I want drive home to as many young people in my area as possible: ‘study for a job, study for a job, study for a job’.

I am doing this because I believe this is a critical factor in getting our region out of some entrenched disadvantage. This disadvantage sees our area as one of the lowest on income any way you look at it—whether it is individual income, household income or family income. We have very low education retention rates. We have very low post secondary education rates; therefore, to be honest, the challenges to lift the region certainly sound like the challenges of the nation. That is why I am really pleased to see this legislation come through the parliament. I will certainly be one promoting it far and wide and, hopefully, getting as many people on the mid-North Coast to benefit from a tax break from government as possible. I hope that we then see some assistance for better education standards for individuals, within the region and, by logical extension, within Australia.

Damian Hale (Solomon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to voice my strong support for the Tax Laws Amendment (Education Refund) Bill 2008. I acknowledge the contribution of the previous speaker, the member for Lyne. I sat through his first speech and he is very passionate about education. It is great to see the support coming from the crossbenches and I acknowledge as well those on our side of the House who have spoken during this debate.

This bill introduces a 50 per cent education tax refund aimed at assisting families with children undertaking primary and secondary school studies to meet the costs of school education through assistance with certain educational expenses. Under the education tax refund, eligible families will be able to claim a 50 per cent refundable tax offset every year for up to $750 of eligible expenses for each child undertaking primary school—a refund of up to $375 per child per year—and up to $1,500 of eligible expenses for each child undertaking secondary school—a refund of up to $750 per child per year. Families in receipt of family tax benefit part A in respect of one or more children undertaking primary or secondary school studies are eligible for the education tax refund. Those parents with one or more children who are eligible for the family tax benefit part A but for the fact that they or their children receive certain other payment or allowances will also be eligible for the education tax refund. Those students undertaking primary and secondary school studies and receiving an independent rate for income support payments may also be eligible for the education tax refund for their own expenses.

By way of my own background, education is a subject that has always been and continues to be very close to my heart. As I have said before, both my parents were teachers, my grandmother was a teacher, my sister is a teacher and I have almost finished a teaching degree myself. So collectively that is a combined teaching experience of over 80 years. I have to say though that having teachers as parents was not always good, particularly when I was growing up. I remember as a young fellow maybe wanting to be a bit slack. I remember often having early nights on parent-teacher nights just in case the teachers were not glowing in their terms when they spoke about me to my parents. But as a parent now I understand where they were coming from. One of the not negotiable issues for me as a father is ensuring my children receive a great education. I often say, ‘You cannot take anything with you when you’re gone but you sure can leave a lot.’ If there is one thing I want to make sure I leave my children it is the knowledge that they have received a solid education.

This bill is vital to thousands of families in my electorate of Solomon because it provides very important financial assistance in this critical area. Having doorknocked extensively around my electorate in Darwin and Palmerston, I know that education is a galvanising issue that people are passionate about. It does not matter what side of politics you are from, it is one of those not negotiable issues. I have never had anyone say to me that we spend too much money on education or that education is overrated. For Labor, better education is the cornerstone of a decent society. Education is at the forefront of our government’s commitment to the Australian people. An education revolution to create one of the most highly educated and skilled nations on earth is the mandate that Kevin Rudd asked the Australian people for on 24 November last year, and they gave it.

During the election campaign, Labor made it clear that Australia needed nothing less than an education revolution, a substantial and sustained increase in the quality of our investment in education for Australian youth. This is required at every level of education, from early childhood education through to the education of mature age students. Just on that point, as we go through life we have many different forms of education and we never stop learning. In my background, having left school to do an apprenticeship as a greenkeeper, and having studied at the TAFE college in Brisbane as well as doing a university course to become a teacher, learning has been a lifelong exercise. Education is the platform of our economic future; our prosperity rests on what we commit to education now. One thing I have learned from my parents is that education is not something that you just go through the motions with. Education is not something that you just talk about to win an election. Education is the commitment we set for the society we want to become. We need an ambitious national strategy to improve our schools, driven by the goal of higher quality. To thrive in the future we need a schooling system which delivers high-quality education for all students, regardless of their address and regardless of their schools.

During the campaign, I know this election commitment was received really well by all parents and kids that I spoke to. I speak to students, parents and teachers all the time. They tell me about their schools and their communities and I am always impressed by the quality of the young people our schools produce, the professionalism of our teaching staff and the dedication of our parents. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the staff of all the schools in my electorate of Solomon. They do a fantastic job. I am excited to speak in support of this bill because I know that mums and dads and families are doing it tough in Solomon. I know that mums and dads and families in Solomon welcome the Rudd Labor government’s initiative.

This bill will assist with the expenses associated with providing a solid education. It will take a bit of pressure off the family budget. This bill will assist with costs of things such as laptops, home computers, printers, paper, education software, school textbooks and associated materials as well as trade tools. The Rudd Labor government is delivering on its election commitment by providing this education tax refund. Around 1.3 million Australian families will be eligible for this education refund. $4.4 billion will be invested in financial support to help working families meet the growing costs of educating their children. It will put money back into the pockets of the many Australian families with school aged children. I am sure that the eligible parents of the children in the 50-odd schools in Solomon will appreciate being able to claim this rebate. In fact, it is estimated that this measure will help the families of around 2.7 million school aged children to meet the costs of their education.

As a parent of kids in both primary and secondary school, I am acutely aware of the costs associated with properly equipping your kids for school. These costs are particularly evident after Christmas and during the Christmas school holidays when families need to start buying necessary items for the start of the new school year. As children progress through primary school to secondary school, the cost of schooling over those years is certainly significant, particularly in recent times.

Delivery of education has changed dramatically. We all know technology plays a huge role in how we educate our children. The Prime Minister has said on several occasions that computers are the toolbox for the 21st century. Through computers and the internet, primary and secondary students are linked to the world. Computer and internet technologies continue to evolve at a fast pace and we must ensure that the education of our kids keeps up. We have to make sure our kids are not left behind; Australian children must be computer literate.

The digital economy is a fundamental component of every aspect of business and of our daily lives. ABS data tells us that around three-quarters of Australian households have a computer at home. Unfortunately, figures also tell us that less than 50 per cent of low-income households have a computer. This has been termed the ‘digital divide’, a divide between those who have access to a computer and the internet at home and those who do not. It is sad that this divide means that some children in our community are disadvantaged by not having access to a computer or the internet at home. Thankfully, this bill will help turn this sad situation around. It will help break down the digital divide by supporting low- and middle-income households with assistance to provide the educational equipment needed for their children to perform at school. That is why the expenses of establishing and maintaining a home internet connection are also included in this bill. The refund will apply to eligible expenses incurred from 1 July 2008. I would also like to take this opportunity to remind the good people in Solomon eligible for the education tax refund to keep their receipts so that they can claim them on their tax return from 1 July 2009. And those people who are not required to lodge an income tax return will be able to access their entitlement through the tax office at the end of the financial year.

This bill goes a long way towards providing relief to hardworking families who are struggling to pay their household expenses. Rising petrol prices, mortgage repayments and grocery bills all add up and can leave families wondering how they will pay for the necessities associated with their children’s education. It is particularly important in times like today, when we are in the midst of a global financial crisis, that we continue to focus on and provide relief to families. The $10.4 billion Economic Security Strategy will assist Australians who need it most. I know that pensioners and families in Solomon can now look forward to some much-needed relief before Christmas. The Economic Security Strategy, alongside this bill, demonstrates just how committed we as a government are to helping families deal with the cost of living. I will quote what the Prime Minister said in his address to the National Press Club in August this year to demonstrate our commitment to the delivery of an education revolution. He said:

… I want people to understand that our reforms are essential to Australia’s future—because quality education is good for our economy, good for our community and good for individuals. It will help create jobs and higher wages, and will create better opportunities for all Australians.

The Government wants the next generation of Australians to be the best educated, best skilled, best trained in the world.

We don’t apologise for this ambition.

Today, we take one further practical step towards achieving the education revolution that Australia needs.

One step further to building a stronger, fairer and more secure Australia, and one capable of handling the great challenges of the 21st century that now lie before us.

I could not agree more. I commend the bill to the House.

David Bradbury (Lindsay, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is with great pleasure that I rise to speak in support of the Tax Laws Amendment (Education Refund) Bill 2008 and recognise that the contents of this bill relate to one of the key commitments that was made by the Labor Party before the last election, and that relates to the education tax refund. I wish to add my comments to the comments of those who have preceded me in this debate in supporting this initiative, one that I think will have a tremendous impact in easing the squeeze of the cost-of-living pressures that families right throughout this country are facing, particularly parents with children of school age.

This initiative, the education tax refund, is very much targeted towards providing support for families on the home front when it comes to the educational challenges that students inevitably go through. The Rudd Labor government’s education revolution has many facets, and I have talked about many of those in this place consistently. The education revolution includes our initiatives in relation to computers in schools and our initiatives in relation to trades training centres in schools. But this particular proposal will, if passed, allow parents to have a tax refund on some of the expenditure that they incur in relation to educational costs for their children. The maximum limit for secondary students is to claim a 50 per cent tax refund on expenditure up to $1,500 and, for primary school students, a 50 per cent tax refund on expenditure up to $750. So the total benefit in relation to a secondary school student is $750 and the total benefit in relation to a primary school student is $375. Of course, these benefits are available to parents whose families would otherwise be eligible for family tax benefit part A.

In terms of the scope of this particular measure, I should note that, in commenting on the thresholds and the limits, one of the significant components that I noted in considering the bill was that those students who might be in year 6 transitioning into year 7 through the course of the present financial year will be able to obtain the benefit of the higher figure, so they will be eligible for a 50 per cent refund on up to $1,500 worth of expenditure. What types of expenditure are considered to be eligible for the education tax refund? They include expenditure on laptops, home computers and associated costs, whether they be in the form of repairs, running costs or leases, if the equipment is leased, and, significantly, home internet connection, printers and paper. It also includes educational software, school textbooks and other material, including prescribed textbooks and associated learning materials, study guides, stationery and prescribed trade tools.

One of the criticisms that has been levelled by those on the other side is that the range of expenses that fall within the scope of the education tax refund is quite limited. There is an interesting observation that should be made in relation to those criticisms, and that is simply that those on the other side had a very long period of time in government—11½ years—and in that time we did not at any stage see any moves towards the implementation of a tax refund for educational expenses of any kind. In fact, it was only after the announcement by the Labor Party in opposition that, if elected, we would implement an education tax refund that the former Prime Minister, the then member for Bennelong, sought to come up with an alternative proposal, an education tax refund that was said to be much more wide-ranging than the one that is presently before the House for consideration. The costings at the time indicated that the coalition proposal was in the order of three times the cost of the Labor Party’s proposal, but let us just put those cost issues to one side—although I note that the coalition, with their determination to block key measures of our budget over the past six months, have done their level best to erode any surplus that is at the government’s disposal. Of course, that surplus is now showing its worth and just how significant it is to us as a nation as we prepare to dip into it in order to protect our economy against the emerging challenges associated with the global financial crisis and the flow-on effects that will come from that.

Whilst the education tax refund is limited, it is limited in a very targeted way. The refund is limited towards direct educational expenses incurred by parents in relation to their students at home, such as the cost of a laptop, the cost of an internet connection, the cost of cartridges. It never ceases to amaze me just how expensive some of these items are. Cartridges can cost anywhere from $25 to $50, depending on the nature of the printer. And that is just for a cartridge for a printer. Printers can range in price anywhere from $150 to $500 for a fairly basic model. One of the most significant aspects of the coverage of this particular initiative is internet access. I note that a fairly basic broadband internet package with fairly minor establishment costs is most likely to cost anywhere upwards from around $650—which is probably about the cheapest package you are likely to find. So the education tax refund will allow many families to receive some tax relief, a 50 per cent refund, on expenses incurred in relation to those costs. They are key costs, vital and essential costs, in the education and development of students as they go through an education system in the 21st century.

Another significant element of this proposal is that the tax offset that constitutes the education tax refund is a refundable tax offset. The significance of that is that there are refundable tax offsets and there are non-refundable tax offsets. The benefit of a refundable tax offset is that those taxpayers who do not pay tax or have not paid sufficient tax in order to get the benefit of an offset are still able to receive the offset in the form of a rebate or a refund. This design feature of this proposal will ensure that those at the lower income level, those that are least able to afford the educational expenses required to provide the necessary support to their children, will still be able to obtain the full benefit of this refund. It is significant that the benefit has been provided in the form of a tax refund rather than a tax deduction. A tax deduction will always be slanted in favour of those on higher tax rates and, by definition, those on higher incomes. So these are significant design elements of this particular proposal. I think they will go a long way towards addressing some of the disadvantage that exists within families across this country and addressing the digital divide we have heard so much about, most recently, in this debate, from the member for Lyne, the member for Solomon and member for Wakefield.

I believe that the benefit of this measure will be great. I note that it relates to the current tax year, so I hope that parents out there are keeping their receipts from 1 July this year, because at the end of the financial year they will be eligible, provided they meet the eligibility requirements, to obtain the benefit of that tax refund. It is also relevant to reflect upon the government’s decisive action in relation to the fiscal stimulus provided through the Economic Security Strategy and I think it is important that we do this from the perspective that, from the first week in December, families eligible for family tax benefit part A will receive a payment of $1,000 per child. I would like to encourage many families out there that might be in a position to take advantage of that one-off payment to utilise that payment to go out and purchase a laptop computer or some equipment that will assist their children in progressing their educational opportunities. I do that because I think it is a good deal for any parent who is in a position to do that. I know that many people will be using that money for some much more basic and necessary items that the household budget might not otherwise provide for, but I think it is important to note just how important it is that children and students have the opportunity to further their learning through the use of a laptop or a computer at home.

The double benefit that will be provided to parents is that if they use that payment they receive in the first week of December—that is a payment that in the household budget should be considered to be something of a windfall—they will still be entitled to the education tax refund on that expenditure. So, apart from the fact that they will be getting $1,000 from the government in the first week of December, they will then be able, provided that they qualify, to expend that money on an education related purpose for their child, and then at the end of the tax year they will get the benefit of a 50 per cent refund on that expenditure up to the limits.

From my discussions with many parents in my electorate, I think it will be taken up by many families, particularly those families that have a couple of children. Let us assume you have two children who are secondary school students and you do not have a computer at home—and the reality is that there are still many families in my electorate that do not have a computer in their home—and you are eligible for family tax benefit part A. The $1,000 per child that is likely to be coming in in the next month or so may give you the ability to purchase a computer while the leftover money, the surplus funds, might be spent on an internet connection and the ongoing costs of maintaining that connection for the rest of the financial year. If a family were to do that, they would be taking that $2,000 windfall and spending it, and that money would be doing what we want it to do, which is provide further stimulus to the economy. In doing so, it would also be leaving that family the option of claiming the education tax refund, which would amount to $1,000 of that $2,000. So it is quite a good deal.

There are a lot of people out there saying we should not be telling families how they should be spending their money and, in the end, families will spend their money as they think most appropriate. But this is something I will definitely be encouraging many parents within my electorate to consider, because I think it is a very good and very wise means by which these two initiatives of the government can be taken advantage of for the benefit of their children.

Throughout the course of this debate there has been a lot of discussion about education issues more generally. I know that those on the other side have singled out a few areas of criticism of the government’s approach. I wish to respond to some of those, but let me begin by saying that there has been an interesting chorus of critical comments coming from the other side in relation to the Investing in our Schools program. There is one slight difference in the approach that has been taken by most of the speakers on that side as compared to the shadow Treasurer, who in her contribution to this debate made comment on Investing in our Schools but importantly did not suggest that this government had cut that program. She did that because she is very aware of the history of that program. Whilst there are some on the other side that are prepared to turn a blind eye to the facts of this matter, it is important to reflect on that history. The history of the Investing in our Schools program shows that the former government had not made any provision to continue that program into the future and, as a result, had evinced a clear intention to not continue with that program.

Let us have a look at Investing in our Schools. It was announced as part of the 2004 election campaign. The first round of funding opened up in 2005. Rounds 2 and 3 occurred in 2006. On 9 May 2006, Ms Julie Bishop, who was then the Minister for Education, Science and Training, issued a press release stating that the program would conclude in 2008. On 19 February 2007, the then Prime Minister announced the final round of Investing in our Schools funding, worth $181 million. Let me quote from his comments on his weekly radio address, which is where this announcement was made:

To ensure that every school community has an opportunity to benefit from this program, we are providing an additional $127 million to government schools and an additional $54 million to non-government schools in 2007—

wait for it—

for a final round of funding.

It was always the intention of the government to bring this program to its conclusion. So it is far from merely being disingenuous for those on the other side to suggest that the Rudd government has brought this program to an end; it is downright misleading. Notwithstanding that, there are measures that we have already implemented in relation to computers in schools. We are beginning to see the first round of applications approved for the trades training centres in our schools. It will not be long before we start to see some of those centres delivered in schools right across the country.

I acknowledge that there has been a lot of controversy surrounding the computers, but for all of that controversy I see nothing but good news in this proposal. Recently I visited one of the local schools that has been a beneficiary of this initiative. I should note that 2,135 computers have been delivered to schools in my electorate. That is 2,135 computers for which, had the Rudd Labor government not been elected, funding would not have been allocated. Had the Rudd Labor government not been elected, computers would not be sitting on desks in classrooms in my electorate. There have been massive benefits to the local community, including schools such as St Dominics College, Jamison High School, Xavier College, McCarthy Catholic College, Penrith High School, Cranebrook High School, Kingswood High School, Colyton High School, Glenmore Park High School, Nepean High School, Penrith Christian School and Penrith Anglican College. You can see that there are government and non-government schools in that list. Being beneficiaries under the first round reflects the fact that their ratios had been greater than one to eight—more than eight students for every one computer. So there was a real need in many schools in my electorate, and that need in large part is being met as a result of the early implementation of the Rudd government’s Computers in Schools initiative.

When I visited Xavier College at Llandilo recently, a number of comments were made by those teachers and the principal that I met. The IT coordinator, Mr Andrew Wonson, said: ‘You’re bringing the whole world into the class. Learning’s not limited to the four walls.’ I will read from the Penrith Press:

Xavier College principal Tricia Maidens said the cost of security and electricity associated with the computer grants is far outweighed by the advancements in education. “In the future we would have had to incur that cost anyway,” Mrs Maidens said.

“It’s such a natural part of their (the students) lives. They’re very comfortable with the technology.

“It’s anywhere anytime.”

So we are seeing real benefits being delivered into schools within my community. Let me conclude by making an observation that emerged from my visit to Xavier College—that is, at the time that I visited I had a discussion with the principal and some of the students in relation to the national curriculum. Some students were at that point sitting the HSC. It emerged as a real issue to me that we should not be conducting our examinations requiring kids to hand write their responses—as we implement computers in schools more and more the emphasis should be on examining them through the same medium that they have learnt. That is where I think there is a real opportunity as part of the move towards a national curriculum to ensure that into the future we not only move our classrooms into the future but also ensure that the examination rooms are fit for what is occurring and what is the norm in the 21st century. (Time expired)

Laurie Ferguson (Reid, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for Multicultural Affairs and Settlement Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I would like to thank all those members who have taken part in the debate on the Tax Laws Amendment (Education Refund) Bill 2008. The measures contained in this bill honour the government’s election commitment to assist families with the costs of education by offering them a refundable tax offset for 50 per cent of certain education expenses for children undertaking primary and secondary studies. From 1 July 2008, eligible parents and guardians will be able to claim a 50 per cent refund each year on up to $750 of eligible education expenses for each child undertaking primary studies. This will provide a maximum refund of up to $375 per child per year. For children undertaking secondary studies, families will be able to claim a 50 per cent refund on up to $1,500 of education expenses per child. This of course will provide a maximum refund of up to $750 per child per year.

The education tax refund can be claimed on certain costs of education, which may include: the purchase, lease, hire or hire-purchase costs of laptops, home computers, printers and computer software; trade tools for use at school; and school text books and stationery. The expenses associated with establishing and maintaining a home internet connection are also eligible for the offset. Parents and others entitled to family tax benefit part A who have children undertaking primary or secondary studies will be eligible for the education tax refund. In addition those who would be eligible for family tax benefit A in respect of a child but for the fact that the child or they on the child’s behalf are in receipt of other payments such as youth allowance are also eligible for the education tax refund. Students who are living independently from their parents may also be eligible for the education tax refund in respect of their own expenses.

Eligible parents and guardians will be able to claim the tax offset through their tax return at the end of the financial year. For those who are not required to lodge a tax return, a separate form will be available from the Australian Taxation Office. Therefore I encourage those eligible for the education tax refund to start keeping their receipts to enable them to claim the tax offset, with the first claims being accepted from 1 July 2009. I commend the bill to the House.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.

Message from the Governor-General recommending appropriation announced.