Kim Carr (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Housing and Urban Development) Share this | Hansard source

As Senator Wong has just indicated, the opposition will be supporting the Schools Assistance (Learning Together—Achievement Through Choice and Opportunity) Amendment Bill (No. 2) 2006. We do so because of the traditional view that you do not stop money being spent on education, despite the fact that this piece of legislation is described in terms which are quite contrary to what is contained in the bill. We note that, increasingly, the use of Orwellian expressions in titles to try to disguise the intentions of government is becoming all too apparent.

This legislation seeks to provide additional moneys to the government and non-government education sectors. Senator Wong has outlined our concerns about the accountability provisions, the uncertainty of the funding formulas and the manner in which funding is allocated, and the impact that the failure of the government to fulfil its responsibilities to the people of Australia has on the learning environment. These concerns about the government’s educational programs have been expressed in this chamber on many occasions.

I am particularly concerned about the effect of the capital program on the learning environment. If my memory serves me correctly, from my reading of the statistics—insofar as they are available—for all the targeted equity groups, which we used to hear something of in education circles, there has in fact been a decline in educational outcomes. I understand that there is very little in this bill to ensure that there is an improvement in the capital programs that are available to students in this country who suffer acute disadvantage—and that troubles me. It troubles me particularly in the context where this morning we heard on the news a further report from the Hanover Group in Victoria concerning the state of homelessness in this country. Today and every other day in this country, some 100,000 people are homeless—100,000 people in this country are homeless every night. Of those 100,000 people, 10,000 are children under the age of 12.

We have heard a lot this week about poverty, and ACOSS is trying to draw to the attention of the parliament the impact of poverty in this country. We have heard a lot from conservative politicians about the reasons for poverty. We have heard from the conservative benches a rehash of an argument that probably goes back 200 years about the deserving and the undeserving poor. We have heard a great deal about poverty in this country being inevitable; that it cannot be eradicated. It would appear that, in the minds of some on the conservative side of this chamber, it is almost a good thing—that a little bit of poverty keeps people in line. I think that sort of attitude is quite reprehensible.

In this legislation we see the failure of the government to acknowledge its responsibility and to actually do something about ensuring social justice in this country and taking steps to ensure that the money that is spent in this country is able to be used to facilitate better outcomes. When I look at the statistics relating to the equity groups that the government seeks to measure, I see a continuing decline. I see no measures in the provisions of legislation like this where the government is taking deliberate action to address the fundamental problems in our society: the fact that there are so many people living in poverty in this country; and that, when it comes to education, one of the most serious causes of inequality being transmitted between generations is the failure to ensure equality of outcomes in the education system.

When we talk about homelessness, we understand that these sorts of situations are not brought about by people choosing to be paupers or choosing to be without a house. There are 10,000 children in this country who are homeless every night. In that sort of environment you would have thought the government would be more interested in ensuring that its educational programs were aimed at overcoming the inherent, institutionalised, embedded poverty that is occurring in this country. I would have thought that legislation such as this would have provided the opportunity for more action to be taken.

I have just been given a note informing me that this bill has to be carried by two o’clock today. I note that the government has not sought to involve the opposition in the management of its non-controversial business.