Michelle Rowland (Greenway, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Will the Prime Minister update the House on the government's plan for school improvement? Why is it important that state governments work with the federal government to invest in our schools?

Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Greenway for her question, because a little bit earlier today the member for Greenway, the Minister for School Education, Early Childhood and Youth and I, accompanied by a number of others—New South Wales Labor MPs—had the opportunity to meet with representatives from the Catholic schools sector and from independent schools. We had, in particular, the opportunity to discuss our plans for school improvement and our plans to ensure that a child's needs are put at the centre of our education funding system. We had the opportunity to talk about building our future by better investing in Australian schools. We particularly had the opportunity to meet with Bishop Anthony Fisher of Parramatta and representatives of New South Wales independent schools.

Those representatives spoke to us of their concerns about the very negative impact that the cuts by the Liberal New South Wales state government will have on non-government schools. Indeed, Bishop Anthony Fisher was very clear about his concerns for the west of Sydney, particularly for smaller Catholic schools that are smaller now but destined to rapidly grow because of the growth in western Sydney and on whom these cuts will fall especially heavily. We talked about our determination, as representatives in this place, to work with Catholic and independent schools in New South Wales to campaign against these cruel cutbacks by the O'Farrell government.

As Prime Minister and as someone who is very concerned about the future of education, I indicated to those representatives that we will not let Liberal government state cutbacks feed into the way in which we fund schools. At the moment, as result of the way school indexation is done, when Liberal governments cut, that feeds into federal government indexation rates. We will not allow that to occur. We will not allow the conduct of Premier O'Farrell and his Liberal mates around the country to drag down the investment of the federal government in schools around our nation. There could not be a clearer contrast in the approach that we take to education than this. We on this side of the House are passionate about creating opportunity and a better future for our children through a great education. The Liberal Party are proving, every day, around the country, that they stand for denying children that opportunity of a great education. They stand for cutting funding to schools. (Time expired)