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

I rise tonight to talk about the importance of equity in education based on reports in today's paper that a guarantee has been given to the Independent Schools Council of Australia that 'overfunded' independent schools will continue to receive current levels of funding with indexation to ensure they are not disadvantaged under a new education funding model. That is all fine, but I have raised the question—and I have raised this now both in writing and verbally with the Prime Minister—of how to make sure, as we at are the eleventh hour of negotiations on a critically important education funding package, that the principle of equity is maintained.

That principle of equity is at the heart of the failure of the last funding model. Inequity has developed in education funding models across all sectors, but more concerning is an inequity in education outcomes. The difference between metropolitan and non-metropolitan outcomes, higher income and low-income student outcomes, and non-Aboriginal and Aboriginal outcomes are all at about 30 per cent. That is an inequity that is facilitated by an inequitable funding model. This principle of equity that is at the heart of the Gonski recommendations cannot be traded out in these final stages of negotiations with the states or with the various sectors, whether they are Catholic, independent or public. Anything that is agreed with a particular state or territory or with a particular sector needs to be agreed within the principle of equity.

If reports are accurate, I welcome the guarantees that have been given to the Independent Schools Council of Australia that any of the so-called overfunding will continue to be received at current levels with indexation to ensure those schools are not disadvantaged under a new education funding model. Under the proposed model, the majority of these independent schools now it seems will receive increases in overall funding, which is good. Importantly, there is also a guarantee to the Independent Schools Council that no independent school will receive less government funding under the proposed model than they would have received if the current socioeconomic status funding model was continued beyond 2013. I welcome that as well. But the assurance that is now sought is that the funding certainty provided for independent schools through maintaining their current level of indexation is not exclusive to them and applies to all schools—Catholic, public and independent—to make sure that they are considered to be operating above the Gonski school resource standard. This would ensure that schools in the public sector, for example, which are already at or above the SES funding level would notionally attract that same level of indexation as per the independent school sector. The assurance is also sought that, in negotiations with the states and territories over the implementation of the new funding model, the Commonwealth will insist that the states and territories at the very least maintain their funding efforts at the same level of indexation as a condition of agreement.

This might sound like fairly dry language to some, but it is at the heart of the negotiation, at the heart of the Gonski recommendations and at the heart of the point of the exercise: to move from an inequitable funding model to one that finally delivers equity in funding. The implications of that move are significant across all school sectors. It is a rare moment when government, with one funding agreement, can make a huge difference in the national interest and to the education outcomes for students across the board.