Amanda Rishworth (Kingston, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to shine a light on the government's serial neglect of education in this country. I thought that, while the Minister for Education has been preoccupied with university deregulation, he was neglecting our schools with cuts to funding. But today I see that he has a much more sinister plan for our schools, and that is to destroy the universal nature of preschool, primary and secondary education in this country. It is absolutely appalling. I tell you what, people around Australia are going to be appalled by the revelations that they have heard today.

There are a number of issues which I want to touch on, but the 10 minutes in which I have to highlight the minister's devious plans and also his incompetence seem hardly enough. The Abbott government has conclusively failed Australian schools, students, parents and families. The government is failing to honour its commitment to implement the full Gonski funding by ripping billions of dollars out of our school system. Now the government are desperately trying to play catch-up with Labor on our well-received announcements on STEM and coding in schools, as well as our announcements on universities.

The duplicity does not end there. As I said, the Prime Minister's leaked federation green paper is clearly softening the ground for the government to do a number of things. The first is to rip out all Commonwealth money from our public schools, which would lead to devastating results. This is certainly moving in the opposite direction to where the Gonski model was going—which was to fund our schools on a needs base system that is sector blind—but this is what the government is preparing to do. There is also the issue of charging parents for their children to attend public schools. As I said, this strikes at the very foundation of universal access to education—something that this country has been very proud of. Indeed, many western democracies say that universal education is critical to democracy. Now we see the Liberal Party wanting to split up the haves and the have-nots and make it very clear that anything is for sale under its government.

We have also seen—and this has been very concerning—the government taking an axe to vocational education in schools. The government has cut millions of dollars out of the trade training centre program. I am sure that if any member on either side of the chamber were to visit their trade training centres—and I know that those on this side of the House absolutely do that on a regular basis—they would see the great outcomes being achieved there. Those opposite talk up vocational education at schools but we know they paused the national curriculum on the National Trade Cadetships program—an initiative that was designed to look at priority areas and a national curriculum for years 11 and 12 in the areas of vocational education. It came to a complete halt under this government. The day they were elected it was halted, and then they cut millions of dollars out of trade training centres. The government may talk a lot about vocational education—we often hear them talk about that in their schools—but their actions do not match their words at all.

We have also had the Prime Minister and the Minister for Education make an ideological attack on our higher education. This has been universally condemned by the public as well by this parliament. The minister and the Prime Minister continue to pursue what is an incredibly reckless attack on our higher education system. This is what we have got from the government who said there would be no cuts to education. This is what we are seeing before us. I think the Australian people should be incredibly concerned.

There has been the $30 billion cut to Australian schools by the government abandoning its commitment to Gonski and the model of a needs based funding system. This is so short-sighted of the government, and not only in terms of their election promise; it also strikes at the heart of so much of the work that was done on what our schools needed. It was to ensure that every student would get a student resource standard and that those who needed extra help to lift their results—those from disadvantaged backgrounds, those with a disability or those from rural and regional areas—would get it. I am surprised that I have not heard any National Party members crying out against this measure. I guess they have been whipped into line by the Liberal Party again. This model, which should be universally accepted as one that will serve us well into the future to ensure that every child gets a good education, is being destroyed by this minister. This was not what he promised before the election, but this is what we have seen.

Now we see the government's latest attack on Australian schools in the Federation green paper. I think everyone should be very concerned. We often hear, 'This is not government policy.' Well, it is the government's document and it was leaked by the government. This is why it is particularly concerning that we see this really concerning state of affairs.

There has been no response from this minister to Labor's positive announcements when it comes to science, technology, engineering and mathematics. The Leader of the Opposition has outlined and articulated a very clear plan for STEM, one where we see coding in our classrooms to prepare our students for high-skilled jobs of the future. We want to see teachers supported in upskilling in STEM disciplines and we want to see students, particularly women, supported in STEM undergraduate degrees that will prepare them for the jobs of a changing economy. We want to see innovation in our country and we want support for micro and small businesses so that they can take their ideas to market. I think this is an exciting and positive plan.

Unfortunately, the best the government have been able to come up with in response is to say that they will make maths and science compulsory in years 11 and 12. There is no innovation, no creativity and nothing about training teachers to meet the demand of students and ensuring they are upskilled. Indeed, in stark contrast to Labor's positive plan, we saw the minister's inaction recently exposed in Senate estimates when it was revealed that the digital technologies curriculum is still sitting on the minister's desk, despite being agreed to by state and territory education ministers in November 2013. There is a forward-thinking minister!

We have also seen the minister announce the idea to make it mandatory in the final years of high school to study maths and science. That is really not an inventive program. We want a bit more invention from this minister, a bit more commitment to our schools and a bit more commitment to our students, not this knee-jerk reaction and ripping and cutting of millions from our schools. I am running out of time. As I said, 10 minutes is not enough to cover this minister's mistakes and the incorrect path he is going down.

The higher education legislation has been rejected by the parliament on a number of occasions and now it is increasingly being rejected by those in the university sector. Certainly vice-chancellors are saying it is probably time to go back to the drawing board and that it is just not practicable now to implement. Labor, along with students, parents and communities, has articulated time and time again that this is an unfair proposal that will see only those who can pay go to university and not our best and brightest. What is worse, despite this proposal being thoroughly rejected by the parliament and the Australian people, the minister has banked the savings in this budget.

It really is time that this minister start taking education seriously and not use it as an opportunity to jump up on his high horse and pontificate and try to take us back to the fifties, which is where all these policies seem to be taking us back to. They are about paying for public schools and paying for university and not actually looking at universal access and the importance of skilling up our community and our young people and giving them the best education. They are our best resource coming into the future. If we do not invest in them, our country will no longer prosper. It is time this minister got serious. I call on him to start investing in education.