Kim Carr (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research) Share this | Hansard source

Having spent the first hour of the proceedings this evening covering these issues I think the government’s position is crystal clear. The provisions of this bill make it absolutely clear that the government is guaranteeing funding for schools—there is a funding guarantee in this bill—so that systemic and non-systemic schools will be able to ensure either that they have the same amount of money they have now—have their funding maintained—or that their funding is actually increased. There is extra money in this bill for schools.

The claims that have been made by Liberal Party senators in this matter are simply wrong. They are not able to sustain the position in terms of the historical precedents or the normal custom and practice of the craftsmanship of the education bills in this parliament, which, of course, is reflected in this bill as it has been in every other bill that I have been personally associated with in this chamber over the last 16 years. The rural and remote loading was introduced by the previous government. It recognises the cost of delivering education in non-metropolitan areas. The SES school provisions, which were also introduced by the previous government and which are not being changed in this arrangement, reflect the aggregate arrangements regarding students’ addresses and, consequently, the general recurrent funding for every school. In fact 19,000 students will now attract funding and increased indexation to their maximum SES funding for their predominately Indigenous schools. That is a result of the provisions in this bill.

The enrolment caps have been removed. Under the previous government’s arrangements there was a requirement to have 20 low SES students in a school. This bill actually allows for much greater levels of flexibility. Under the new arrangements additional resources will be provided to low socioeconomic communities for teacher quality and teacher literacy and numeracy under the national partnership agreements.