Paul Fletcher (Bradfield, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Government Services and the Digital Economy) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak on the Better and Fairer Schools (Funding and Reform) Bill 2024. The primary purpose of the bill is to amend the Australian Education Act 2013 to enable the Commonwealth's share of funding for government schools to be increased. The government says this is all about delivering its election commitment to 'put every school on a path to its full and fair funding' under its so-called Better and Fairer Schools Agreement, formerly known as the National School Reform Agreement.

The Albanese Labor government is very enthusiastic about applying slogans to the names of agreements and bills like this one. It is not so good, however, at delivering on its commitments. After 2½ years there is still no national school funding agreement, and time is running out. The Commonwealth has reached bilateral agreements with the Tasmanian and Western Australian governments to lift its contribution to government schools from 20 per cent of the schooling resource standard to 22.5 per cent. The government schools in the Northern Territory's Commonwealth share would be a much more significant 40 per cent from 2029, recognising the dire challenges facing Territory schools, particularly in remote communities. But there is no funding deal with the other states—New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, South Australia—or the ACT. There are no national school reforms as the member for Blaxland had promised to ensure that every child reaches his or her best potential. What we have instead is a full-blown school funding bill. It can only be described as a fiasco. There is nothing better or fairer about leaving more than 5,500 government schools across the nation, 83 per cent of government schools, in limbo. With one in three students failing NAPLAN, there is nothing better or fairer about failing to deliver the national school reforms which are critical to ensuring every child can reach his or her best potential.

It is of deep concern that the member for Blaxland was not able to conclude by his self-imposed deadline of 30 September, now very rapidly receding in the review mirror, a funding and reform agreement with the state and territory Labor education ministers. Instead, on 21 August this year, the state and territory Labor education ministers came to Canberra to protest against the Albanese government, with the Victorian Labor education minister, Ben Carroll, even declaring on ABC radio that morning that the Liberals did a better job funding public schools when in power than the current government. You couldn't find a more objective witness. He spoke the truth. Over nine years, the former coalition government nearly doubled annual school funding from $13 billion in 2013 to $25.3 billion in 2022. Our quality schools package drove record funding of $318.9 billion to all schools between 2018 and 2019. We also strengthened the curriculum with strong evidence based content, including teaching phonics and the science of reading, and improved teacher training. We backed our high-achieving teachers and delivered best-practice literacy and numeracy programs designed to close the gap.

Under the Gonski funding model, it is important to reiterate that, while the Commonwealth is currently meeting its agreed 20 per cent schooling resource standard share, it is the states and the Northern Territory which have fallen short to varying degrees. Queensland's contribution as a percentage of the schooling resource standard to government schools is just 69 per cent, well below the 80 per cent requirement, and Victoria is not much better at 70 per cent. Northern Territory is just 59 per cent. So it was always misleading for the Albanese government to claim that it would 'fully fund' government schools when the Commonwealth was fully meeting its agreed obligations.

The current National School Reform Agreement, extended by a year, is due to expire on 31 December 2024. While the government is proposing in its draft heads of agreement a number of important reforms, including evidence based teaching interventions, screening tests, such as the year 1 phonics and numeracy check, and improved student attendance and performance targets, the reforms are both light on detail and inadequate. Evidence based teaching methods, such as explicit instruction, must be mandated in every classroom. This is now starting to happen in some states, but it needs to happen across the country. The draft agreement contains plenty of motherhood statements but says nothing about the need to further improve the national curriculum or deliver crucial reforms to combat classroom disruption, such as a national behaviour curriculum, particularly as Australia has some of the unruliest classrooms in the world.

This bill permits but does not require the Commonwealth to increase its share of government school funding beyond 20 per cent, with the exception of the Northern Territory, which would receive a 40 per cent share from 2029. These provisions grant the Commonwealth new flexibility in funding arrangements with states and territories, principally because of the member for Blaxland's threats that government schools in the four biggest states will miss out on any increase if they don't sign up to a 22.5 per cent share from the Commonwealth and agree to contribute 77.5 per cent. This is no reflection on the newly elected Crisafulli government in Queensland, of course, which is still getting its feet under the table after an overwhelming vote of no confidence in Queensland Labor. For students, teachers, principals and parents, this funding fiasco must be resolved. In many respects, this situation is not surprising. Whether it's school funding, evidence based teaching reforms, the gross mismanagement of international students or Labor's economically reckless and profoundly unfair HECS debt policy, much is going wrong in the education portfolio.

Let's not forget those on the front line—our hardworking teachers, principals and other educators. Without better training from our universities, evidence based teaching materials, such as lesson plans, and ongoing professional development, teachers cannot excel if they do not receive the support they deserve. That's why it's so important to deliver a back-to-basics education sharply focused on literacy and numeracy, underpinned by explicit teaching and a knowledge-rich commonsense curriculum. This is critical to turning around declining school standards. This is critical to the next generation of Australians.

The coalition supports this bill. We do note that there is a Senate inquiry into the bill which will report on 18 November, hence providing all stakeholders with an important opportunity to raise any concerns. We urge the government to get on with the critical job of finalising school funding and reform agreements with every state and territory.

Debate adjourned.