Bob Brown (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

Yes, I will. I am going to be very brief because Senator Nettle gave a sterling speech on behalf of the Greens on this matter last night. What she pointed out was that you cannot have a needs based policy, as the government says it has and as Labor claims it has, while the limited education funding and increases in the limited education funding keep going to the ultrawealthy schools at the top of the pile at the expense, therefore, of the most needy schools in Australia. You cannot say that you have a needs based program when the money going out of the public purse to already very well-off schools might be providing for a rifle range whereas public schools are looking to maintain or to refurbish toilets and basic needs for the kids that go there.

The prior role and responsibility of government is to ensure that all Australians have not just basic buildings in which to be able to be educated but that the quality of their education is going to ensure them an equal opportunity at the end of their education process for fulfilment in life. We simply do not have that in Australia. The gap between rich and poor is growing, as the gap between rich and poor schools is growing. The very richest schools are in the private sector and the poorest schools, not least Indigenous schools in this country, are in the public sector.

The case is for us putting extra expenditure into the public schools sector where it is badly needed—instead of putting it into the fifth swimming pool, putting it into the classroom where kids need to get a basic education. The argument that Senator Nettle put forward is that neither of the big parties anymore are offering needs based education policy. The Labor Party cannot claim to be doing that when its own funding program is right across the spectrum. It has withdrawn from the ideal that money should be going to the poorest schools in Australia. What money is available—and it becomes increasingly from the federal arena—should be going into refurbishing and upgrading the poorest schools in Australia to bring some equality back into the education system.

The Greens will be pursuing this issue in the run-up to the election. We are unashamed defenders of the public school education system in this country. We believe that more should be spent overall on education, not less. We want to take Australia from its languishing position in the OECD spending stakes into the top 10. The Labor Party has recently moved to put Australia back into the forefront of the delivery of broadband services. Is it not as important or more important to put Australia back into the forefront of the delivery of public school educational services?

Let me remind the Senate that the countries at the forefront of the OECD include Scandinavian countries and countries like Austria which, almost universally, have a system which is not divided between private and public education, unlike the system we have. We do have a private education system in this country and it is very diverse, and we accept that. But the Greens are saying that the limited education dollar should not be going to the very wealthiest school to build a fifth swimming pool when there are many schools in Australia which have a dire need for money just to enable them to present a quality education commensurate with that of countries of equal population and standards.

Again, I thank Senator Nettle for her speech to the Senate last night. I recommend that members read that speech. As a consequence, Senator Nettle will be moving a second reading amendment to get back to the time-honoured Australian philosophy of a fair go. We should be ensuring that when there is new money available for education it goes to the neediest public schools in this country.