Mike Symon (Deakin, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On behalf of the standing committee on education and employment, I present the committee's advisory report, incorporating a dissenting report, on the Australian Education Bill 2012, together with the minutes of proceedings and evidence received by the committee.

Ordered that the report be made a parliamentary paper.

by leave—on 29 November 2012 the House Selection Committee referred the Australian Education Bill for inquiry and report. The reason for the referral was to enable the committee to consult with school communities regarding the development and implementation of the National Plan for School Improvement. The bill articulates the government's aspirations for school education in Australia. It also provides the foundation for a legislative framework that seeks to put an excellent education for every child at the heart of how Australia delivers and funds schooling.

The purpose of the bill is: to articulate and acknowledge the government's aspirations for schooling; set goals for Australian school education that address those aspirations—namely, to provide an excellent education for all students, to be highly equitable and for Australia to be placed in the top five countries in reading, science and mathematics in quality and equity in recognised international testing by 2025; to commit to a national plan for improving school performance and student outcomes; to itemise the reform directions for a national plan that will achieve the government's aspirations and goals; and, to make agreement to implement a national plan for education authorities a prerequisite for receiving a Commonwealth government funding for schools with grants based on outlined principles.

The bill incorporates core recommendations made by the Gonski review to implement a dollar per student resource standard and various dollar loadings for disadvantage, regardless of the type of school the student attends; and, a National Plan for School Improvement. The inquiry received 53 submissions and conducted public hearings in Canberra, Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne. Evidence was taken from a wide range of stakeholders, including principals, unions, Catholic and independent schools, teachers, parents, educators and academics.

The committee made five recommendations, including that the House pass the bill with the amendments outlined in its advisory report. The explanatory memorandum to the bill stated the government's intent to move amendments to the bill following the conclusion of negotiations with states, territories and the non-government school sector. The two amendments give effect to any funding model agree to and address the legal enforceability of the final act. Stakeholders discussed at length the possible content of the funding formula, and some stakeholders expressed concern regarding clause 10 and the 'legal unenforceability' of the bill.

On the funding formula it must be emphasised that the committee was not tasked with reporting on proposed amendments to the bill. Rather, it was the bill at hand. To enter into speculation on what the government ought to agree is beyond the terms of the referral to the committee and possibly deleterious to the confidential negotiations between the Commonwealth, state and territory governments, and non-government education authorities.

On clause 10 the committee was advised by the DEECD departmental lawyers that this type of provision, whilst not common, is not without precedent and there are examples of similar provisions in other Commonwealth statutes. Moreover, both amendments are likely to occur before the final passage of the bill.

The Australian Education Bill foreshadows fundamental reforms to education in this country—reforms that are overdue and vital to the future of our children and the nation's prosperity. I would like to thank all those who provided evidence to the inquiry; the previous chair of the committee, the member for Kingston; my committee colleagues who participated in the public hearings and report consideration; and the committee secretariat. I commend the report to the House.

Rowan Ramsey (Grey, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

By leave—the coalition members of the committee are in broad support of the aspirational goals of the Australian Education Bill but are of the opinion that it is not good process to recommend to the House that the House of Representatives pass a bill when the committee has not been able to ascertain what implications the final bill will have for Australia.

At the end of the inquiry coalition members were asked to support a recommendation that the bill be passed. It became apparent throughout the inquiry that in fact the bill was incomplete and cannot operate without quite serious amendment, particularly to the last clause, which the chair just referred to, clause 10, which of course says that the bill is non-legally binding.

It occurs to the members of the coalition that to recommend that the House pass a bill when we do not know what the effect of that bill will be—what impact it will have on education, what impact it will have on schools throughout Australia—is probably reckless. But we are not prepared to recommend that the House not pass the bill. What we suggest is that the bill be returned to the House. The government should make the appropriate amendments to allow that bill to function, and then it should be re-referred to the Standing Committee on Education and Employment to provide some guidance to the House as to whether the bill is likely to function in the way in which the government proclaims that it should function.

Quite a number of contributors raised the issue with us that there was a lack of detail. One contributor said that they had had 16 different variations of the funding model. The independent schools association of Australia said that they thought it was more like 30. At that stage, they had no idea where the negotiations were likely to settle. Given that we have been finding out more in the press about this process than we actually found out in the committee, it seems to me and to the rest of the coalition members that we should have another chance to review the bill when that negotiation is complete.

At this stage, this is an aspirational bill and, as I said earlier, the aspirations are in fine order. So I look forward to the ensuing debate that is likely to come—perhaps even in the next few hours—and I look forward to seeing what amendments the government is going to put forward to facilitate the operation of this bill throughout Australia. The schools and the schooling systems in Australia need to know how this bill and the new regime will affect their funding model just for next year, because this is due to be implemented from 1 January 2013. At this stage, unless something has happened behind closed doors in very recent times, I understand there is no certainty at all surrounding those issues. So we look forward to the debate and we look forward to the government's amendments. I hope in the end that perhaps we will be able to support them.