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

My question is to the Minister for School Education, Early Childhood and Youth. Will the minister update the House on how schools in regional and remote communities will benefit from the National Plan for School Improvement? Why is this investment so important for the children who live outside of our capital cities?

Peter Garrett (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Minister for School Education, Early Childhood and Youth) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Wakefield for that question. In his electorate he has seen this government's commitment to supporting education—200 Building the Education Revolution projects, improving facilities in schools; trades training centre opportunities; and Computers in Schools. This is the mark of this Labor government.

It has been good news today and I want to applaud the leadership shown by the Chief Minister of the ACT for her vision to invest, alongside the Premier of New South Wales, in the National Plan for School Improvement. On this side of the chamber we understand that in fact schools in the bush carry much of the disadvantage in our school system. That is because quite often they are remote from services—they might be schools that do not have the opportunity to get access to good programs. It is particularly important that the National Plan for School Improvement provides for them.

Schools in regional Australia do a good job, and I have visited some great ones—Bega Valley Public School in the electorate of Eden-Monaro, Ross Park Primary in Lingiari, Seymour College—but the broader results show us that children in the schools do not do as well as their equivalents in metropolitan Australia. Now the National Plan for School Improvement will deliver around $6 billion in extra funding for regional and remote schools in country areas over the next six years. That is because the funding model is based on need and because the needs in rural and regional Australia are great.

I am asked why the investment is important. The fact is that if a kid gets the support in school, whether it is through an additional teachers aide, literacy coach or homework clubs, then they will do better in school. If they do better in school, they can get a better job and they can contribute to both the community and the economy of regional Australia. Our regional Labor MPs get it. The crossbench gets it—they know how important the National Plan for School Improvement is for the bush. The New South Wales Minister for Education gets it. The only people who do not get this particular fact are those opposite.

Members opposite talk a big game—I hear them all the time—about how they profess to stand up for the bush. They are always talking about standing up for the bush and how passionate they are about rural and regional Australia. Now is the time to show how fair dinkum you are, because the National Plan for School Improvement means better education for all Australians—more funding, but particularly for students in the bush. Under Mr Abbott and Mr Pyne funding will go backwards. Under the National Plan for School Improvement funding will go forwards and land in the schools in rural and regional Australia. It is time that the National Party stood up for those students and those schools. We will deliver a National Plan for School Improvement. (Time expired)