Steve Georganas (Hindmarsh, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) acknowledges the pivotal and vital role that our schools play in preparing our children to be active and contributing citizens;

(2) notes:

(a) that school education is an essential component in providing children with the skills and knowledge they need to reach their full potential, including academic, social and communication skills; and

(b) the important work that schools undertake to ensure that students are prepared for the challenges of further study and working life, especially in new emerging technological and scientific fields;

(3) acknowledges and thanks school leaders, teachers and support staff for their dedication, commitment and professionalism in ensuring not only that every child learns, but is also nurtured and cared for; and

(4) further notes:

(a) that the one factor that makes the biggest difference in a child's learning is the quality of their teachers;

(b) the challenges faced by teachers and support staff in providing individual care and assistance to students who are struggling with various aspects of their school life; and

(c) the need for governments to fully support teachers in this important work.

The greatest and most important investment we can make in the social and economic fabric of our nation is in education. If we want to be a smart nation, an innovative nation, then we have to invest in its foundation, and that foundation is schools and education in the early years and through to middle school and high school, which are so important. We can talk as much as we like about an innovative nation, about innovative technologies, about being a smart nation, but the reality is that if we do not invest in education and schools it is nothing but talk. That is why the previous Labor government, under the guidance of Julia Gillard, undertook the most extensive review of school funding to ensure that funding was based on students' needs and schools' needs. In other words, where there were needs, there would be enough funding to take care of those needs and bring the students up to certain standards.

This government's new school funding policy is a joke. You can try to dress it up any way that you like, you can try to pretend otherwise, you can ties bow on the school package, but the facts expose it for what it is: a $22 billion cut to schools. At the same time we are cutting from schools, you continue wanting to give big business a $65 billion tax cut. What type of government rips money from schools to give it to the multinationals? That is exactly what took place the other night in the budget.

In my state this equates to around $265 million that will be ripped from South Australian schools in the 2018-2019 year. Let's take a look at how much schools in my electorate of Hindmarsh will lose: Edwardstown Primary School, $375,000; Ascot Park Primary School, $135,000; Saint Leonards Primary School, $317,000; Forbes Primary School, $298,000; Cowandilla Primary School—the school that I actually went to—$372,000; Flinders Park Primary School, $285,000; Henley Beach Primary School, $463,000; Lockleys Primary School, $142,000; Plympton Primary School, $311,000; Henley High School, $1.325 million; Thebarton Senior College, $759,000; Plympton International College, $428,000; Lockleys North Primary School, $445,000; Fulham Gardens Primary School, $97,000; Seaton High School, $882,000; Underdale High School, $610,000; Kidman Park Primary School, $432,000; West Beach Primary School, $234,000; Grange Primary School, $670,000; Fulham North Primary School, $440,000; Westport Primary School, $216,000; West Lakes Shore School, $643,000; Torrensville Primary School, $288,000; Warriappendi School, $53,000; and Glenelg Primary School, $676,000. That is just the state schools in Hindmarsh. We are yet to hear what the full impact will be on the nongovernment sector, but we gather it is also likely to be hit pretty hard.

Glenelg Primary School in my electorate has a fantastic principal, Rae Taggart. Under Labor's plan, the school was due to get more than $850,000 in Gonski funding over the next two years. Instead, under the Turnbull government's plan, the school will get only $91,000 in 2018. This is what the principal said: 'The money the school had received had gone into intervention programs, and we have taken children who are struggling with their learning out in small groups and given them the tuition they need.' That is what the principal said. These children will now miss out.

Parents, teachers and schools deserve the truth about what is happening under this government and what they are offering. They certainly deserve better than what this government is offering. We have a Prime Minister that talks about innovative nations and innovative technology, but he is not willing to fund the foundations of it. They certainly deserve better. Labor will restore the $22 billion that this government has cut from the schools, and we will do this because we believe there is nothing better than education. (Time expired)

Lucy Wicks (Robertson, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is there a seconder for this motion?

Anne Stanley (Werriwa, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I second the motion and reserve my right to speak.

Damian Drum (Murray, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Labor Party is the only group in Australia that continues to think that adding more money to the existing funding arrangements for education, at a rate that is over and above the cost increases that are expected to be in the sector, is somehow or other a cut. They know it is untrue. They know it is deceitful. We all know it is disgraceful that they continue to talk about these monies. Sure, they promised more money, but when doesn't Labor promise more money for every sector in Australian government? When don't they come out and say, 'I don't care how much the coalition is spending. We're going to spend more!' It is just what they do. It is what is in their DNA. Whatever we offer they are always going to outspend us. We understand that. But to stand up and say that there has been a cut is nothing short of deceitful and disgraceful.

We have taken the funding models of the primary schools, the independent schools and the government schools from where they are at the moment and we have put 4.4 per cent, 4.2 per cent, 4.3 per cent and four per cent growth on top of where they are at the moment—$6.6 million and on it goes. There is not one school, except the 19 or so—most of them here in Canberra—that is actually going to have less funding. If the Labor Party wants to install their funding let them come out and say they want to install more money for Canberra schools—that is what they want to do—but they will not. They are too scared. They understand that we have this one right. They understand that we have a fair funding model. They understand that we have a needs based funding model. They understand that the model that we have given them is transparent for the first time ever. It is uniform. They understand that David Gonski is now standing side-by-side with the Prime Minister and the education minister. They understand that what we are doing for the education sector is giving the teachers, students and schools the full respect that they deserve for such a critically important vocation.

I would like also to have a little bit of a special thankyou to the teachers and to the principals, because it is my view that a lot of parents are vacating the space of parenting their children. What they are doing is placing more and more responsibility, and more and more tasks, onto the schools to do some of the basic. The expectation has always been that a lot more of the various roles associated with parenting a child, with raising that child, used to be the sole responsibility of the parent. They would send their kids off to school to be educated. However, what we are finding now is that there are many schools that have to provide a breakfast program and a lunch program. They have to explain to children how to be resilient. They have to explain to children how to handle bullying. There is a whole range of other social problems that are much more than just your basic education that now has to be provided by principals, year-level coordinators, welfare staff and on it goes.

I think that we need to enable principals to be able to do the best job they can, and that means giving them autonomy. It means giving teachers some incentive to be as good as they can possibly be, to create some benchmarks that are going to see teachers continue to strive to be the best teacher that they can be.

I am proud to be part of a government that has developed such a fair and transparent funding model, one that has acknowledged the teaching profession for the critically important vocation that it is. This is not just about recurrent funding and having a very fair recurrent model—we understand exactly now that if you send your kid to a government school the state government is going to provide 80 per cent of the resource funding and the federal government is going to provide 20 per cent. For private schools, flip that over—20 per cent from the states and 80 per cent from the Commonwealth government. Not only that, we also have a very strong Capital Grants Program. Recently, in my electorate of Murray, there was $1 million for St Augustine's College Kyabram, $1 million to Sacred Primary Heart School in Yarrawonga and $700,000 for St Mary of the Angels Secondary College in Nathalia. We have seen $50,000 for digital literacy for primary schools at Lockington, working in conjunction with the primary school at Rochester. To see years 5 and 6 students using their iPads for computer programming of some robots really shows that kids in today's primary schools are taking the technologies that are available to them, and taking them just as second nature. These are some of the important steps that we are taking as a government, and I am very proud to be part of the coalition government when it comes to education.

Andrew Giles (Scullin, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am so pleased to join in what has been passing for a debate on this important motion put forward by my friend the member for Hindmarsh. I am proud to stand with all my Labor colleagues to give every child in every Australian school every chance of fulfilling their potential in school and in education, because that is what the original Gonski vision was all about. That is a vision that has been fundamentally undermined and now betrayed by this government. This motion highlights the essential choice when it comes not just to schools funding but to Australia's future.

On the Labor side of the parliament, we stand for the future and for investing in our kids and giving them every chance in life. We understand that every child starts school with different advantages and disadvantages, and we need a schools funding mix that accounts for that. That is what the national plan for schools improvement was; that is precisely what this sham is not. There is so much noise from members opposite because they are not interested in this debate. They are fundamentally not interested in our future. We have seen them short-change early years education. They continue to apply bandaids when they need to invest in the best start in life. When it comes to schools funding, they are absent. They have no understanding, no empathy and no vision. The choice is very clear—

Government Members:

Government members interjecting—

Andrew Giles (Scullin, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Shouting will not get you anywhere, Member for Goldstein, and I am disappointed that the member for McMillan has been joining in on this. If we pull out the figures, the story becomes clear. Let us talk about the real marker, which is the years 5 and 6 Gonski funding. That is real needs-based funding, not Tony Abbott's $30 billion cut. That cannot be the baseline for a future that is fair. It is no vision for our kids and it is no vision for Australia.

The other thing that I am very disappointed that members opposite are not focusing on in this motion is what is really at the core of the Gonski vision. They try to use David Gonski as some sort of human shield, but they cannot get away from two facts. One was that the core of the report that he was one of the authors of was the reaching of a common student resourcing standard; the other was the Commonwealth paying its share to get there so that every child in every school in every sector received an appropriate standard of school education. That is the vision that has been walked away from.

Underpinning that was our appreciation of vital role of teaching. We understand that teachers are the most important influence in schooling outcomes. By providing resourcing to deliver those other supports that even out the imbalances that the lottery of life delivers to too many of our kids, we were delivering the opportunity for teachers to teach. That is what is being lost.

When I think about my role as a local member and my role as our shadow assistant minister for schools, I think about teachers. I think about the lengths that they go to—too often out of their own pockets—to make sure that kids who have not been looked after in the lottery of life get every opportunity to go to school. That might be about paying for books and uniforms or organising breakfast clubs. As a representative and as a member of the future Shorten Labor government, all I want is to ensure that teachers get to teach.

Government members interjecting—

Members opposite find this funny, but I really do not find it funny. What we saw in question time today underlines the height of their arrogance and hypocrisy, because we saw the government use disability as a weapon. I ask members opposite who backed in their duplicitous Prime Minister on this in question time to look hard at the bill that we will be debating tomorrow and look how it short-changes students with disability. There is no material before us that safeguards any assurance that the disability loading will be implemented. There is no evidence before us that this government takes students with disability seriously.

In fact, it is clear that under this government every Australian does not count when it comes to school. The government stands condemned for that. It stands condemned for walking away from its unity ticket on schools funding and it stands condemned for not recognising the hard work that our teachers do, and the imperative of us recognising and supporting their work. If they were serious about education they were would do justice to this motion and they would look again at the bill that is before this House.

Andrew Gee (Calare, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is a pleasure to make a contribution to this debate recognising the important work that teachers carry out in our community. They work tirelessly to ensure that our children are supported and encouraged and grow up to be active and engaged citizens in our local communities. Teachers nurture the promise of tomorrow and it is very fitting that they are recognised in this House. They invest hours in our children's education—they organise excursions, community gardens and all manner of programs.

I would like to draw the attention of the House to just a few of the wonderful programs and some of the great work our teachers are doing in the Calare electorate—just a small sample. Nashdale Public Schools is one of the schools I will highlight tonight. It is located just nine kilometres from Orange. Its teaching staff include Principal Kylie Toberty, Lisa Miller, Samantha Perfect, Elise Dennis, Carly Sutherland, Matt Campbell, Mel Winters and Michelle Wood. Four years ago a small vegetable garden was built for the school, thanks to a generous donation of land from the neighbouring White family. Parents and grandparents come to school and spend time showing the children how to tend the garden and teaching them of the value of seasonal produce. Sandra Shepard is one of the many wonderful grandparents who spend their time helping out with the garden and teaching the students about the importance of recycling. The senior students of Nashdale Public School sell the produce from the vegetable garden at their stall, called 'Nashie-Nosh'. I highly commend it to you, Deputy Speaker. I know that if you were ever in Nashdale you would stop in at 'Nashie-Nosh'. The money raised then goes back into the garden and into local causes.

Cullen Bullen Public School should be commended for their efforts in fundraising, with the help of teachers Jacinta King, Nereash Nicholson and Sarah Thorncraft. In the last week of term one they held their very first colour run. I am told the students had a lot of fun, with activities and a barbecue, put on by the P&C. Cullen Bullen Public School raised more than $700, which is more than any amount raised by previous fundraisers. I congratulate them on their wonderful efforts.

Technology is also a big part of Wollar Public School. Every Tuesday the four students at Wollar Public video conference with a teacher in Beijing to improve their Mandarin language skills. That is quite impressive when you consider the reasonably remote location of Wollar. They started learning how to speak Mandarin in term 2 last year and the video conferencing has allowed Wollar Public School to take part in virtual excursions, through a program called Dart Connections. These virtual excursions started two weeks ago and will soon include a deep dive into the Great Barrier Reef. What a wonderful experience for the students there. They have another excursion organised for later this year, where they will travel to Camp Toukley with Hargraves Public School, Hill End Public school, Lue Public School, and Glen Alice Public School. I would like to give special mention to the teachers at Wollar Public School, including Julie Gale, Kay Bushnell and Kate Field.

Ulan Public School is testament to the many benefits of being a small school. They are great things there. I would like to make mention of Kellie Endacott, Annette Riley and Amanda MacLean. The teaching staff at Ulan have recently welcomed a lending hand and enormous support from the local Wilpinjong Mine. Workers from the mine sought a contractor to build a new chook pen for the school and funded the project. The students at Ulan Public School are now responsible for looking after six chooks. They collect the eggs every day—I am told that this morning collected 11, which was a record!

I would also like to make mention of Anson Street School in Orange. They have adopted a number of very positive strategies and programs with the help of the local community. This term the 133 students at Anson Street School are taking part in the Ripple Kindness Project. As part of this project, the students are provided with a checklist of activities to do at home and school. After reading last week's newsletter, it is evident that the students are carrying out a wide variety of kind acts right across the community.

I would like to make mention of the principal, Melanie Meers, the deputy principal, Rebecca Halls, and the assistant principals, Cathy Hudson, Julie Hudson and Christine Kovac. I would also like to make mention of two special students who represented me at the mid-morning service on Anzac Day this year. They were Ashley Wilson and Olivia Cavalli. They laid the wreath at the cenotaph, and I was very grateful for their assistance. I congratulate all our hardworking teachers right across the Calare electorate and thank them for the wonderful work they are doing.

Meryl Swanson (Paterson, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the member for Hindmarsh's motion about schools and education and the good things schools are doing in our community. But it would be remiss of me not to also speak of the cuts that this government is making to schools, cuts that will bring to a halt the wonderful work they are doing for our students and our communities.

When I last spoke about this subject in February, schools in Australia were facing a $30 billion cut to funding because the Turnbull-Abbott government had reneged on a deal it had made with the states to pay the final two years of Gonski funding. Now, in its laughable Gonski 2.0 proposal, the government has thrown a few crumbs back to the schools so that cut will no longer be the disgraceful $30 billion but will still be $22 billion. I fail to see how, just because it still has the 'Gonski' label, anyone can celebrate a $22 billion cut to education and our schools.

In Paterson, my electorate, under the government's 'generous' new funding model the 45 schools will collectively lose more than $23 million. It may be as high as $24 million. That is no drop in the ocean. Despite what the government is telling school principals and parents, it is a cut. It is a very real cut. The final two years of Gonski funding had been agreed to by the Turnbull government, agreed to by the states and budgeted for, most importantly, by schools. Now schools will miss out. This is from a government who says its budget is fair and full of opportunity. Is it fair that every school in my electorate of Paterson will receive funding cuts?

Let me tell you about just three schools in my electorate that have done remarkable things with their genuine Gonski funding and three schools that will be among the hardest hit by the fraudulent Gonski 2.0 and these cuts. One is Kurri Kurri High. It is my old school, in fact, and dear to my heart. It has received $244,000 in genuine Gonski funding to date. With that they have employed a full-time teacher to work with Aboriginal students, and writing results have improved by 200 per cent. The employment of two experienced HSC markers and retired teachers to work with every individual HSC student has doubled the number of students who have attained band 5 results in the HSC and led to a 75 per cent reduction in the number of students not completing the HSC. An extra deputy principal has focused on creating world-class teachers who learn from professional development and the latest research. This has led to innovative programs, with year 7 working in hubs to increase their engagement. Kurri Kurri High, which has made such great improvements, will miss out on $1.3 million under these cuts. Imagine what they could do with that. Imagine is all we may ever get to do.

Another school making great leaps and bounds is Rutherford Public School. Rutherford Public, to date, has received $595,000 in genuine Gonski funding and has invested in substantial additional professional learning for teachers. Through employing extra staff, it has set up innovative transition programs for students entering kindergarten and for those moving from year 6 to year 7. They have employed additional literacy and numeracy teachers to help students with those critical skills. They have contracted a speech pathologist to work with teachers in language development. They have employed a community liaison officer to promote school attendance, parent inclusion, and community liaison and engagement. They have funded a gymnastics program, a school band, physical education and student welfare programs.

Unless genuine Gonski funding is fully rolled out, Rutherford Public will miss out on $1.1 million. But that is not the worst of it. Rutherford high school, one of the most disadvantaged schools in my electorate, will lose a staggering $1.8 million in the next two years because this government does not give a hoot about young people and their education. Rutherford high runs fantastic programs, and now these students are going to miss out. Students study business services, construction, hospitality, metals and engineering, primary industries, retail services and sport coaching. These often lead to jobs with their host employer once they have finished school.

We should be talking about education, but we should be talking about properly funded education. This Gonski 2.0 is a joke, and everyone knows it. The original always will be the best.

Julia Banks (Chisholm, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Chisholm, in Melbourne's east, is the third most culturally diverse electorate in Australia, and it follows that there is a diversity in different school offerings. Ultimately, every child needs quality teachers and schools with the right resources and the right tools and programs in place so that they can succeed. That is exactly what the Turnbull government's $18.6 billion quality schools plan will deliver.

The leadership in principals in Chisholm schools reflects the quality of the teachers. Great leaders know that it is important to rely on the facts and truth—a fundamental core value—not least because of the importance to pass this on to their children and students. Labor's opposition and untruths in relation to the education reforms and people running scare campaigns for the sake of political pointscoring or for trying to get a special deal for their school sector should cease. I know this because these past few weeks I have communicated and met with all the principals of schools across Chisholm and, despite the scare tactics by commentators and Labor, the principals invariably have embraced the Turnbull government's quality schools program. The teachers, parents and, indeed, senior students I have spoken to in Chisholm equally want fact, not fiction. They seek to be, understandably, alert and informed. They know that their school stands to benefit from the increased funding, which is transparent for all to see on the school funding estimator. In fact, their greatest concern is more about the alarmist untruths and misleading commentary made by Labor about the future of their children's education—all of which is counterproductive to the philosophy of Gonski 2.0.

The Turnbull government's education reforms and needs based funding model for schools, as endorsed by David Gonski, are about fairness. We are treating all non-government schools identically, with none of the special deals that Labor dealt out based on background or faith. There are no more Labor generated secret deals. Forty-seven schools, in every sector, in every local community in the electorate of Chisholm will be receiving significant increases in funding because of our needs based funding program. The fact is that every single Catholic school based in Chisholm will see increased funding. The fact is the Catholic schooling system around Australia will receive more than $1.2 billion extra over the next four years and around $3.4 billion extra over the next 10 years.

In relation to systemic arrangements—that is, schools that operate as systems, including the Catholic schooling system around the country—they will still continue to receive their funding as a lump sum funding entitlement, enabling them to redistribute that money across their schools as they see fit. There is no reason, with that scale of additional funding flowing into their schools, that fees need to increase anywhere around the country. If they do, that is a decision for the Catholic education authorities, who are responsible for allocating that lump sum.

The total increase in federal government funding for schools in Chisholm over the next 10 years is $244 million. This is great news for the primary and secondary schools in Chisholm and, indeed, across Australia. There are over 20,000 students in Chisholm who will stand to benefit. Importantly, our increased funding will be tied to reforms that evidence shows make a real difference to supporting our teachers and schools and to improving student outcomes. This is a fair system that is good for students, good for parents and good for teachers.

David Gonski stood alongside the Prime Minister and Minister Birmingham in announcing our $18.6 billion investment in school funding, which entails a comprehensive rewrite of the way school funding occurs so that every school across the country is treated in an equal way, based on their own need and circumstance. The Quality Schools program is realising the vision of David Gonski in a measured and pragmatic way. This government is applying an honest, straightforward and comprehensive outline of the intent behind the recommendations of the Gonski report that was handed down six years ago.

The Turnbull government is delivering a uniform model for school funding, and it is under that uniform model that we are able to invest more into the students who need it most. The Turnbull-Birmingham reforms are sensible, pragmatic and fair. They are based on facts, not fiction. The principals and teachers who I have spoken to quite are justifiably alert to the changes but not alarmed by the rhetoric and emotive baseless language. Most importantly, these reforms are needs based so, regardless of which name, faith or sector is on the school gate, every Aussie kid has the same opportunity.

Lucy Wicks (Robertson, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The time allotted for this debate has expired. The debate is adjourned and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.