Sharon Claydon (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Twenty-four thousand Newcastle children are halfway through term 1 of their schooling year. For some students it is their first year. They are finding their way through the alphabet and learning a lot more about the world around them. Others are 12 years into their formal education and finalising preparations for their HSC and the next stage of their life. It is incontestable that every single one of these 24,000 students and the 3.7 million children across Australia deserve to have a great education. All members in this Parliament would agree. What is contested, however, is how this commitment to a great education should be funded, despite the Liberals going to the last election on a so-called unity ticket with Labor when it came to school funding.

I remember the big signs outside election booths in my electorate that said, 'Liberals will match Labor's school funding dollar for dollar.' We doubted the Liberal commitment to education at the time—and as it turns out, rightly so. Instead of honouring their pledge, the Liberal government walked away from Gonski and cut an additional $30 billion of funding from our schools—cuts that the new Prime Minister has confirmed in recent months. Cutting $30 billion from schools is the same as cutting one in seven teachers in our classrooms or the equivalent of stripping, on average, $3.2 million out of every school. In my electorate alone, it would mean more than $195 million being stripped from local school budgets.

The importance of the Gonski reforms has been reinforced with me when I have visited school communities across my electorate over the last 2½ years.

When I visited Kotara High School and New Lambton South Public School during Gonski Week celebrations last year, teachers, parents, members of the P&C and the support staff told me about the difference Gonski was having in their respective schools. Smaller class sizes meant more time with each student, ensuring no-one was falling behind. Intensive literacy and numeracy programs have had enormous benefits for students, helping them learn fundamental skills that in turn set them up for life.

Earlier this month I visited the Carrington Public School and Tighes Hill Public School gates at drop-off time to update parents on Labor's renewed commitment to needs based school funding. The message back to me was consistent and clear. Mums, dads, grandparents, carers, principals and educators all told me the same: 'We love Gonski and we need Gonski at our school.' My school communities understand clearly that properly funding our education system is not an expense but rather an investment in Australia's future.

Needs based school funding is the right model, and every student in every school deserves the support they need to reach their full potential. That is why a Labor government will implement and fund the Gonski reforms in full and on time. Labor's 'Your Child. Our Future' policy will see an additional investment of $37.3 billion in our education system over the next decade, including $4.5 billion for years 5 and 6 of the Gonski reforms.

There will be more individual attention to students through tailored learning programs, greater subject choice, extension classes and extra-curricular activities to ensure that every child is engaged at school. Funding will be based on individual need, which will give greater power and flexibility to schools to tailor programs for their individual students. Labor will invest in training teachers, improving initial teacher education, offering more support in the classroom, lifting the qualifications of STEM teachers and better supporting school principals.

And Labor will deliver more support for students with special learning needs, providing $320 million over three years in additional funding, more than reversing the Turnbull Liberal government's cuts to students with disability. It is the right of every Australian to access a quality education regardless of background, circumstance or location. It is the cornerstone of our social and democratic traditions and the key to our economic success. That is why Labor wants to build on Gonski, not destroy it. Labor introduced the Gonski reforms and we are committed to a sector-blind needs-based school funding system. We will fight the Liberal government's cuts every step of the way, because every child in every school deserves— (Time expired)