Pat Conroy (Shortland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

When I was speaking earlier I had just finished discussing the cuts at a national level that are embodied in the Australian Education Amendment Bill, and I now want to turn to the very significant impact this bill will have on public schools. I am a proud product of a public school education, and I will always be a proud advocate of public schools. Given the background of the Prime Minister and most of his government, they clearly do not understand the fundamental importance of public schools in our society and our future. There are a few over there who went to public schools; unfortunately, clearly, their experience is not reflected in this legislation, otherwise it would not be ripping away billions of dollars from public schools. Under Labor's funding model we were providing 80 per cent of extra funding for public schools, and the reason for this is simple: public schools cater for seven out of 10 children with a disability, seven out of 10 children with a language background other than English, eight out of 10 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students and around eight out of 10 children from low-income families.

Yesterday I met Phoebe McIlwraith from Halekulani, who is representing my region as part of the Indigenous Youth Parliament. She is an incredibly impressive and articulate young woman who will succeed in whatever she puts her mind to. She is passionate about education. She reminds me of the fact that 83.9 per cent of Indigenous students attend state schools, and she said, 'If you want Indigenous Australians to succeed, you must fund state schools.' That is Phoebe's quote, and I thank her for it: if you want Indigenous Australians to succeed, you must fund state schools. That is what Labor was doing, and unfortunately the plan of the Liberal-National government proposes the exact opposite. The leader of this House has stated that the coalition has an emotional commitment to supporting private schools, and he went on to say that the coalition's view was that 'we have a particular responsibility for non-government schooling that we do not have for government schooling'—and that is reflected in this legislation. I am proud to be a representative of a party in which it is an article of faith to support all school systems, and especially our great public schools. The coalition simply do not believe in the concept of needs based school funding, and that is clearly evident in this legislation.

Finally, on this point, we know that public schools will be significantly worse off under the government's proposals, because the Director-General of the New South Wales Department of Education—in a Liberal government—has written to every principal warning them not to trust the government's new school model. His advice to principals is:

You should not rely on these figures for future planning or budgeting purposes. The calculation of apparent increases to your school also does not take into account increases in teacher salaries or any other cost growth over the next decade.

That is straight from the New South Wales Liberal government, saying the federal Liberal government's figures cannot be believed.

This government has abandoned public schools with these proposals, and it is another damning indictment of their priorities.

I also want to highlight the impact of this bill on the Catholic school system, particularly for local parish schools in Shortland. Under Labor's proposal, Catholic and independent schools that educate children with special needs would have received extra funding. Labor has significant concerns that the government's new proposal will penalise some local parish schools and that these schools will suffer very substantial funding losses and will have to increase fees or cut teachers at their schools. This is very important to me. St Pius X Primary School in Windale in my electorate is the lowest SES school, government or non-government, in all of New South Wales. Let me repeat that: I have the school drawing students from the poorest background in the entire state of New South Wales. It is a small school of only 50 students, and around 50 per cent of these students are Indigenous. Because of Labor's reforms, this school has been able to employ an extra two teachers. This is incredibly significant. Two extra full-time teachers in a school with only 50 students is making an enormous difference to this school. When I have talked to teachers and parents at the school, they have been evangelical about the impact that this has already had in their lives. That is the most basic point about this legislation: the government's cuts will mean that disadvantaged children in both the government and the non-government sectors will suffer because of the lack of extra funding and support.

All of us in this place are always privileged to be able to visit the local schools we represent. It has been a great pleasure getting to know the school communities in Shortland after I was elected last year. In every school I visit I am always told by the principals, teachers and parents how supportive they are of Labor's needs based funding model and what a difference it is making to their schools and communities.

Schools in my electorate will be significantly worse off because of this legislation. Indeed, every public school in New South Wales will face cuts. Because of the government's cuts, public schools in Shortland will be over $17 million worse off in the next two years alone. Lake Munmorah High School, which has benefited so much from Labor's needs based funding model, will be over $800,000 worse off. Wiripaang Public School at Gateshead, another low-SES school, will be $650,000 worse off, and the primary school closest to me, Biddabah Public School at Warners Bay, will be $300,000 worse off. This will have a massive, massive impact. Teachers and principals have told me about the benefits of the needs based funding model that is already happening. I heard from the principal of Lake Munmorah Public School how they are using the extra funding to invest in teacher quality to lift the quality of their teachers, which is making a concrete impact on the learning outcomes of their students. I have heard from the principal of Warners Bay High School, the largest high school in my electorate, that it has devoted the additional funding to extra literacy and numeracy tutors to target the lowest 25 per cent of students so that they do not fall behind and can stay up with their classmates throughout the entire six years of their high school education. I have heard from the leadership at St Mary's High School at Gateshead how they are using the money to invest in vocational education and training, given the very high level of trade training needs in my electorate.

In the time left to me I also want to draw the attention of the House to the cuts in electorates close to mine. The member for Robertson will be voting for over $13 million in cuts for her local schools. The member for Lyne will be voting for almost $20 million in cuts to his schools. What a pathetic sham they are! They purport to represent regional New South Wales, but they are doing so much damage to local school communities by voting for this legislation. These are very significant cuts for schools and will have a real impact on students, teachers and their local communities.

Before concluding, I want to place on record my own support and that of the Labor Party for gradually reducing funding for the 24 most overfunded schools around Australia. Elite independent schools should not be receiving significantly extra resources when schools with very basic needs, like so many in the electorate I represent, are having their own funding significantly reduced.

In conclusion, the Liberals and Nationals do not understand the fundamental importance of needs based funding, especially for public schools. They are trying to con the Australian public. It is akin to robbing us of $30 and giving us back $8 and thinking that somehow we should be grateful that they have only taken $22 off us. The government's own documents demonstrate and brag about the fact that they are cutting education funding over the decade by $22 billion. These are not figures from the Labor opposition; they are not figures from a teachers' union or a state government; these are the government's own figures, as distributed to journalists on the day of their announcement, and they brag about a $22 billion cut, and that is a cut that will impact on students around the country and, in particular, in my electorate.

I would invite the Prime Minister to visit St Mary's high school or St Pius primary school or Warners Bay high to see the real difference that Labor's needs based funding is making and to hear firsthand what the results of these cuts will be. My Labor colleagues and I understand the fundamental importance of needs based funding for our schools, and that is why we are committed to the model, and that is why we will continue to fight for the wonderful and transformative impact it is having in our local communities. (Time expired)

Chris Hayes (Fowler, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to speak on the education legislation that is currently before the House, the Australian Education Amendment Bill 2017, and I notice in the galleries upstairs we have a number of school students visiting Parliament House. For their benefit, I think we should say that the investment in education is the best investment that we can make because every dollar we spend on these students is an investment not only in them so that they can fulfil their potential and to give them a world of opportunity in the future, but also because they will provide an opportunity for us—the future of our country. Therefore, we should acknowledge those visiting today but also acknowledge the fact that they have a very significant role to play in the future of this country and that is why this parliament should be fixated on what we have got to do about investing in education and it should not just be going through this spurious argument that is taking place at the moment where, when they say they are putting money into education, in fact they are not fulfilling what is required for needs based funding.

I have heard member after member on the other side talking about the contributions that have been made to local schools. I would like to read what the secretary of the New South Wales Department of Education, Mr Mark Scott, said in relation to that. He said: 'The Commonwealth budget contains an increase of $820 million to NSW schools, but there remains a shortfall of $1.8 billion.' The Liberal Minister for Education in New South Wales has certainly made his comments very succinctly. He said:

We made sure we found the funds we needed to meet the obligations under the agreement we signed in good faith with the commonwealth government …

We have funded the full six years of our agreement with the commonwealth.

… we come in good faith, we have a deal with the commonwealth government and we expect that deal to be honoured.

The New South Wales government did enter, in good faith, an opportunity for investing in education into the future.

Now we see the government making war on the systemic Catholic schools, the parish schools. We have had His Grace Archbishop Fisher saying that schools will be forced to dramatically increase their fees and some may be forced to close. For systemic Catholic schools, it is funding a system: they do take money from richer, more prosperous areas and invest it in areas of low socioeconomic status where parents may be on low incomes and so might find it harder to pay school fees. They offer faith-based education, but they certainly want to make sure it is affordable education. Mrs Christine Scanlon, the principal of the All Saints Catholic Primary School in my electorate, said: 'The problem with this government is they don't understand how Catholic systemic education works.'

Debate interrupted.