Sam Birrell (Nicholls, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

BIRRELL (—) (): I move:

That this House:

(1) condemns the Government for failing to address the critical issue of classroom disruption in Australian schools which is severely impacting the learning outcomes of Australian students as well as forcing teachers to leave the profession in droves; and

(2) notes:

(a) that despite the escalating levels of classroom disruption and even violence in many classrooms, the Government has failed to respond to the Senate inquiry report by the Education and Employment Reference Committee into the issue of increasing disruption in Australian school classrooms;

(b) the declining ranking of Australia in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) disciplinary climate index, making Australian classrooms amongst the world's most disorderly;

(c) the impacts, demands and experience of disorderly classrooms on teacher safety, work satisfaction and workforce retention;

(d) the impact of disorderly, poorly disciplined classroom environments and school practices on students' learning, compared with their peers in more disciplined classrooms; and

(e) how leading OECD countries with the highest disciplinary climate index rankings can provide valuable lessons on reducing distraction and disorder in Australian classrooms.

It is good to hear people waxing lyrical about education. I think it's something that all of us agree is really important for the future of our nation. We've got to have an honest debate about how we get the outcomes we all want to achieve. I think there are some real challenges in education in this country at the moment. I don't think things are going in the right direction, and there's a lot of data to suggest that. In fact, OECD data shows that Australia's education standards have fallen since 2006, with Australia ranked 12th for reading, down from sixth; 10th for science, down from sixth; and 16th for maths, down from eighth. We need to have the analysis as to why we think this is happening. The data and many of our experiences in the education system show us that behavioural issues and disruption in our classrooms are key reasons why education standards are slipping. I'll talk about some experiences that I've had, and then I'll talk about what the Senate committee found.

Many years ago I was asked to be principal for a day at a state school in Shepparton, which means I got to shadow the principal and work with the staff. What I saw were a lot of teachers who were there because they were very committed to educating young people. They were very committed to doing it in the state system, because they wanted to give everyone a fair go, as did my mother, who was a teacher at Shepparton High School for well over 30 years. But increasingly they were finding that they couldn't do what they were there to do, which was to teach, because there were a lot of behavioural issues coming into the classroom, and the system wasn't giving them the tools to deal with those behavioural issues. I saw kids outside trying to cool down because they'd blown their stack in the classroom, and I saw children being disruptive. There are cases where children have been violent, and assaults towards teachers are up. So we really need to understand what's going on here and try and work through it, because if kids aren't in a calm, safe environment, they can't learn, and if teachers aren't in a calm, safe environment, they can't teach.

On the coalition's pushed request on 28 November 2022, the Senate referred the issue of increasing disruption in Australian school classrooms to the Senate Education and Employment References Committee to inquire and report on the issue of increasing disruption in Australian schools' classrooms. There were a number of recommendations. I haven't got time to read them all out, but I'm just going to precis a few of them and then question whether the Albanese government in its funding agreements can focus on this very issue of behaviour and disruption in the classroom and get to the core of it. Senate recommendation 8 states:

The committee recommends that the National School Reform Agreement Ministerial Reference Group consider including strategies for addressing disruptive classroom behaviour as one of the priorities for the next National School Reform Agreement.

Now, I'll go to another recommendation. This was recommendation 3:

The committee recommends that government and non-government education authorities are required to invest in the professional development of teachers, so that they are supported by the latest evidence-based teaching skills to manage classroom behaviour.

So we need to give our teachers the tools that they need to deal with classroom behaviour, and it's getting harder. It's not like it was when my mum was a teacher in the eighties. Kids were coming from more stable backgrounds, in my experience. Now there are a lot of social issues—particularly since the COVID pandemic and the onset of social media. Disruption is becoming endemic in classrooms, and we need to focus on that and make sure we create environments to learn.

I'm trying to understand where Minister Clare's funding agreements are up to with four of the states, because my understanding was that they were supposed to be done by 31 December 2024, and, in four of the states, we haven't seen the funding agreements. Not only do we want to see them but we also want to see whether there is any focus on this critical issue. As well as the curriculum and as well as increasing funding to schools, which are supported aims, we want to see whether there is a focus on this insidious and challenging issue that all of us are seeing and all of us are hearing about from the parents and the staff of disruption and behavioural issues in classrooms. It's causing a lot of problems with learning and a lot of problems with teaching, and it is seeing teachers move out of the sector—sometimes out of the state education sector and sometimes out of education altogether, and that's not what anyone wants.

Rebekha Sharkie (Mayo, Centre Alliance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is the motion seconded?

Jenny Ware (Hughes, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is, and I reserve my right to speak.

Joanne Ryan (Lalor, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'd like to begin my remarks by thanking all the teachers who showed up in classrooms today across this country. I'd like to particularly thank the graduate teachers who went to work today and had a bit of a tough day but who'll be back again tomorrow with a smile on their faces and a welcome for every student as they enter their classroom. Teaching is really complex. School leadership's really complex, and I'm glad that the member for Nicholls, in his one day as principal for a day, learned so much about the education system. I'm so glad that he wants us to use evidence based things in our schools and yet he came here with no evidence for most of the assertions that he just made! Seriously, it was riddled with errors. Where are the state negotiations up to, member for Nicholls? Perhaps you'd like to read a newspaper, or perhaps you could go to Minister Clare and ask for a briefing. The Victorian deal is signed. He Victorian deal is signed, and every Victorian state school will be funded by the Commonwealth to 25 per cent of SRS, member for Nicholls.

But you're a Victorian, and you want to talk about Victorian schools, so let's start there—let's start somewhere else. This really has more front than Myers—to bring this here to the federal parliament of Australia. The Commonwealth assists in funding schools but does not run a school; states run schools. For the second part, I just want to make sure everybody understands the hypocrisy to mention the funding programs and the funding agreements when those opposite, when in government, dashed the hopes of a generation of teachers, dashed their hopes that their work was finally going to be valued by a Commonwealth government, because they stopped the movement of Gonski. They told people, through their actions, that education is not valued in this country. In fact, what they did was cap the Commonwealth contribution to the SRS for state schools across the country to 20 per cent. But they didn't put a cap on private schools.

Like the member for Nicholls, I have been principal for a day since I've become an MP; unlike him, I was a principal for a lot longer than that. That means I understand the funding models. It also means that I can go to the My School website and I can see right now where independent schools in this country are being funded by the Commonwealth more than state schools are being funded by the state. That's the legacy of a coalition government. That is the legacy of a coalition government. So, for those who are listening in at home, just know that those opposite don't value education; those opposite want to criticise teachers. They want to criticise society. They don't understand the complexities of teaching at all. They want to talk about social media impacting our classrooms. If I have to hear from one more male member in this place about how they know about schools (a) because their mum was a teacher or (b) because they went to a school, well—as a profession, we'd like to be valued for the work we do, for the training we did, for the on-the-job training we did, for the perpetual learning that we committed to on the first day we walked into a school.

I didn't bring your family into it.

Sam Birrell (Nicholls, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

You did.

Joanne Ryan (Lalor, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

No; someone else did. The member for Nicholls needs to understand that he wants a magic wand to fix student behaviour and he wants the Commonwealth to magically find this magic wand. I'll tell you what happens, with student behaviour: hard graft, professional teaching and learning, people committed to a profession and committed to student outcomes—that's what the magic bullet is. It's really, really complex, and no-one sitting on the benches in this place with no experience should be suggesting that they know the answers to these questions. They can consult, but one day as principal for a day does not make anyone in this place an expert on education or on schools.

From preps through to year 12, we have committed teachers walking into classrooms. They need to be respected for their professionalism. People in this place need not to tell them how to do their jobs; they need to ask what supports they need to make them better at their jobs. That's what places like the federal parliament should be busy investing in. In terms of the OECD and the outcomes, the fundamental thing that the conservative government missed in all of this debate is that, in schools where there isn't a chasm in funding between private and public, they're performing better. But you don't want to hear that, you don't want to see that evidence, and you don't want to understand what it means.

Rebekha Sharkie (Mayo, Centre Alliance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'll just remind all members to direct their comments through the chair.

Jenny Ware (Hughes, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak in favour of this motion, and I thank the honourable member for Nicholls for bringing this motion. And I also commend the honourable member for spending a day at a school within his electorate. It's something that, I must admit, I've not done yet. I am going to do it, now that I've heard from the honourable member.

I think that the confected outrage from the member for Lalor is really quite extraordinary. I don't know how it can be suggested by the member for Lalor that the member for Nicholls, an elected representative, cannot get up and speak about education within his electorate and, indeed, within his state and nation. I remind the honourable member for Lalor that the honourable member for Nicholls has been elected to represent his constituency and has just as much right to stand and talk about education—or about any other topic that he would like to talk about—as the member for Lalor. Simply because the member for Lalor was a teacher and a principal for many years does not mean that she is the only person in this place that has any right to speak on education. That is complete and other nonsense.

The bad weekend down in Victoria that my friend the member for Nicholls has just referred to could well be part of it!

The member for Nicholls has brought a very important matter to this place, and that is that the government is yet again sitting on an inquiry that had many, many recommendations. The inquiry included a recommendation that the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority strengthen the focus on behaviour within the Australian curriculum by specifically introducing a behaviour curriculum.

Just as an aside, I'd be very interested in a count being made of how many reports that have been done in this place and in the other place during the term of this government and that have been presented to the government and have not been acted upon. I note that many, including me, have spoken in this place about the failure of the Albanese Labor government to act on the Murphy report into gambling. I cannot count the number of times that I have spoken on it. And I know that many others have as well. This is yet another inquiry where the government has the report, has the recommendations, but has gone, 'Oh, no, that's all too hard,' or, 'We'll look at that on another occasion,' because it was proposed by the side of the House.

This report goes to empowering teachers so that they can actually teach without things like chairs being thrown at them, without the disruption of students running around the classroom. I've been into classrooms. Thankfully, in my state of New South Wales, the government has banned the use of mobile phones in the classroom. When my children first started high school in 2019, I went to a local high school. I'm not going to say its name. It was showcasing the school for parents who were supposed to be impressed by the school. We went into a food tech room, and there were three students at the front cooking and 10 at the back all on mobile phones. And that was supposed to be acceptable: 'Oh, mobile phones aren't interrupting the education of our student.' Thankfully, that has been reversed in New South Wales.

While I'm here talking about teachers, I want to talk about some fabulous teachers that are working in some great schools in my electorate, and I know that because I've been out to see them. I saw them at the end of the year and also throughout last year. They are Como West Public School, Illawong Public School, Hammondville Public School, Ingleburn High School, Macquarie Fields High School, Sackville Street Public School, Macarthur Adventist College, Menai Public School, Bangor Public School, Waterfall Public School, St Pat's Catholic Primary School and the beautiful Minerva School, which does so much to educate and support children with significant disabilities within our community.

So I commend this motion and thank the honourable member for bringing it.

Matt Burnell (Spence, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I have to be honest here. I feel for the member for Nicholls. I reckon he would have come up with this motion and deliberated on it with his colleagues towards the end of last year. I'll at least give him credit here: the subject matter is important. It's important that the classrooms our children develop in are brought to the attention of this House. The Albanese Labor government is committed to advancing our communities from the ground up through education. For communities like the northern suburbs of Adelaide—and I've said this a few times now—education is the key to opportunity. It is the circuit breaker for disadvantage. It serves to lift individuals and families out of intergenerational cycles of poverty. Beyond that, thriving countries like ours are built off the backs of teachers, who will often give the majority of their lifetime towards educating our children. The education system deserves national attention to continue this progress we make, both as a national collective and as individuals, and this motion helps to do so.

I'll also give credit to the member for Nicholls for another reason, and that's going back to the timing of this motion, because just a couple of weeks ago my home state of South Australia—our home state, Deputy Speaker Sharkie—signed a historic agreement with the federal Labor government, to fully fund public schools to bring our classrooms to the level they need to be at, to address the core of the issue the honourable member raises in his motion and to finally correct the record after years of ignorance from those opposite. That agreement was for the federal government to come together with the Malinauskas state government in South Australia and cover 25 per cent of the schooling resource standard. This is a federal Labor government doing what it does best: meeting the needs of our communities, including my community, where help is needed most on this front. This is an investment of an estimated $1 billion in additional Commonwealth funding over the next 10 years, which represents the biggest investment into South Aussie public schools in the history of the Australian government. This is a federal Labor government that gives a Gonski—one that is committed to a genuine lift in the standard of education in this country, to tackle disadvantage head on and level the playing field.

Going back to the timing of this one, I reckon that if the member for Nicholls could, in the words of the great Cher, turn back time and find a way, he'd find a way to change this one up a bit, because I'm now going to chart what's caused the issues the member raises. Those issues are poor behaviour in classrooms, the negative impact on learning outcomes because of it, worsened morale in the workplace for teachers, and constant retention headaches for schools, which are especially prevalent in my community. Those opposite sat on our hands and watched these issues for nine long years, and Labor is getting things back on track. That journey started in 2011 with the Gonski review, which made a recommendation that public schools receive 100 per cent funding and that that funding go towards things like phonics tests, numeracy and literacy tests, and having support staff in classrooms to help with unruly children.

That takes me to one of the primary schools in my electorate—one that I'm very fond of. I recently had the great good fortune of taking the Minister for Education Jason Clare, there to meet the fantastic principal, Julie Murphy, her team and the wonderful students who go to learn at that primary school. Julie Murphy and her staff go above and beyond every single day to meet the learning needs of the young people who go to that school in my community. When I say 'go above and beyond', I don't just mean turning up and delivering classes. Julie Murphy and her team go out into the community of Elizabeth Vale, knocking on doors and getting young children dressed and brought to the school to make sure that they have the best education they possibly can. This sits outside of what the SRS is fundamentally there to do, but this is what great teachers do. This is what great leaders in our education system do. They 'give a Gonski'. They take the essence of education in its purest form and they know what that means for the young people that they're teaching. Without principals like Julie Murphy, and her team, we are worse off. This SRS funding is going to help with the retention of fantastic leaders and teachers at schools like the Elizabeth Vale Primary School, and I commend this motion.

Rebekha Sharkie (Mayo, Centre Alliance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There being no further speakers, the debate is adjourned and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.