Mark Arbib (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

The incorporated speech read as follows—

I rise today to support the Schools Assistance Bill 2008 and The Education Legislation Amendment Bill 2008.

It’s great to have an opportunity to speak about education, which is as I have mentioned often is a top priority for the Rudd Government and a personal passion of mine.

After 12 years of Howard government rule, our education system is in need of major reform.

New Limited CEO Rupert Murdoch said it best in his recent Boyer Lectures:

“In short, we have a 21st century economy with a 19th century education system, and it is leaving too many children behind.”

That is why we are undertaking an education revolution and that is why this bill is so important. Not only is it providing more funding for all our schools, it is also delivering new measures to improve accountability, transparency and teacher standards in the education system.

And this is not to be pessimistic about our education system. We are lucky in this country to have some of the best schools, teachers and administrators in the world. Our schools and our educational standards are of the highest order, but we must make the jump; taking our education system into the future.

Australian families need to know that their children are getting a modern education of the highest international standards, and should be confident that no matter where in Australia they choose to live they can send their kids to a top quality school.

It is also essential to move away from the social divide between public and private schools, something that this bill provides. Instead we need to move to a landscape where quality of education, a focus on individual educational needs, and transparency of educational institutions inform parental choices and more importantly each school’s performance.

The Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Education, Julia Gillard, describe the twin goals of excellence and equity. Both are achievable and most importantly we should demand no less for our children.

Education is the best way of fighting inequality, providing opportunities for all children to lead fulfilling and productive lives.

These opportunities should not be limited by geographical or socio-economical particulars. All children, whether they live in the country or city and from whatever background, should have equal access to the same great education.

And in Australia we have the opportunity and the resources to make this equality and standard a reality.

What we have lacked has been national leadership in this area. What the past 12 years has taught us is that without strong direction at the national level, standards can drop, comparisons with other countries can worsen and our children can be short changed by the education system.

The Rudd Government promised at the last election to modernising our education system all the way from early childhood to higher learning. We have been working at it for a year and we are continuing today to deliver on that promise with this bill.

This bill links funding agreements to schools to certain requirements for a greater, more open education system.

Division 3 of the bill highlights the need for independent schools to participate in national student assessments. This will include an assessment against national standards in reading, writing, language conventions and numeracy for students in years 3, 5, 7 and 9.

It also includes requirements for non-government schools to participate in preparing a national report on the outcomes of schooling. This will help greatly to inform the community about schooling across the country.

The implementation of a National Curriculum will ensure that across Australia no student is left behind on important minimum standards of knowledge.

And non-government schools will also be required to make reports relating to students and financial operations of the schools.

For the first time, there will be consistency and transparency across all recipients of government funding. It is important to note that there is no requirement placed on non-government schools by this bill that will not also apply to the public school system.

Firstly this bill continues to fulfil the Government’s election promise that no school will lose a dollar. Public Schools will continue to have their funding indexed to make sure levels do no drop below 2008 levels and the Socio-Economic-Status funding allocation will continue to ensure that funding goes to those areas and schools where it will have the biggest impact.

Independent schools, just like all Australian Schools, are committed to providing the highest level of education they can for their students. They will therefore receive $28 billion in funding for non-government schools from 2009-2012.

Despite comments from the Liberal Party, the vast majority of Independent Schools in Australia want this bill to go through. Who wouldn’t with $28 billion in funding at stake, but it is more than that: The Liberals claim that the reporting measures and national standards are onerous and unwanted; this is wrong.

Let’s just look at some of what the Dr Geoff Newcombe, Executive Director Association of Independent Schools of NSW has to say about the concerns raised by those opposite:

On the issue of the $28 billion funding:

“It is absolutely critical that this bill is passed without delay so that independent schools have enough funds early in 2009 to pay their teachers and staff.”

On the concerns about the national curriculum:

“Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard has now indicated that the new Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority will be asked to look at ways in which the national curriculum can provide flexibility and allow for differences that still meet the required standards. This is reassuring and represents a commonsense approach to implementing a national curriculum that takes into account the diversity that is a feature of our existing school education system.”

On the concerns about financial disclosure:

“The implementation of the proposed national curriculum and the new reporting framework were raised at a Senate Standing Committee inquiry into the bill. However, most independent school groups are confident that these issues will be satisfactorily dealt with in consultations with the Government.”

And he concludes that:

“These, however, are matters best dealt with when the details of the Regulations associated with the legislation are known.”

On the obviously politically motivated objections of those opposite:

“There are times when political differences must be put aside to allow for critical pieces of legislation to be passed for the benefit of the community.

The Schools Assistance Bill 2008, which provides for the funding of nearly 1.2 million Australian students in more than 2,700 independent and Catholic schools, is one such piece of legislation.”

And he goes on:

“What we don’t want is a situation where proposed amendments delay the bill until next year. This would be disastrous for many independent schools”

Finally:

“Attempts to amend the bill in the Senate may put at risk funding for non-government schools for the commencement of 2009. Certainty has been replaced with uncertainty …”

The sector knows that allowing transparency of performance and funding makes for a better more open education system.

They also know that national standards do nothing but benefit students. These are minimum standards but they are not low, they ensure that all schools that receive commonwealth funding offer education that delivers for our children. Such an arrangement does not impede the operation of different approaches to school but simply ensures minimum standards.

This arrangement is fair, equitable and what our children deserve.

Accountability and transparency in our government and non-government schools can only benefit students.

What we are seeing from the opposition today is the inadequacy of the Shadow Minister for Education Mr Pyne. Bent low under the shameful legacy of the Howard government and facing the vision of the Deputy Prime Minister, those opposite have responded with an argument against accountability and transparency.

We should never forget the Liberal’s record on education. Between 1995 and 2004 public funding of tertiary education increased by an average of 49% across the OECD but declined by 4% in Australia. This makes Australia the only OECD country where the total level of public funding of tertiary education decreased during that time.

The Rudd Government’s Education Revolution is well underway:

We are:

(1)

Investing in Trade Training Centres in Schools, with a $2.5 billion injection to build new infrastructure to develop vital skills.

(2)

The Digital Education Revolution has already delivered more than $116 million for almost 117,000 new computers in 896 secondary schools.

(3)

We have spent $500 million under the better universities Renewal Fund to facilitate the rebuilding and repair of campus infrastructure.

(4)

For early childhood learning the government is investing $114.5 million over four years, establishing 38 early learning and child care centres.

(5)

$577.4 million has been allocated to develop a National Action Plan for Literacy and Numeracy. 29 pilot programs for two years will guild reform and development into the future.

(6)

The Education Investment Fund with already 8.7 billion to provide future capital for education investment.

(7)

Phasing out of domestic Full-fee paying places to ensure that merit is the only driver of access to higher education.

(8)

The Bradley Review of Higher education.

(9)

Establishing a national Curriculum for the first time to ensure that no student misses out.

(10)

$62.4 million for the National Asian Languages and Studies in Schools Program.

(11)

$28 billion to non-government schools in this bill.

This bill delivers on the Rudd Government’s election promises to undertake an education revolution in this country.

It moves the Australian education system forward and away from the traditional private sector public sector divide and ensures that all schools that receive government funding commit to certain standards of performance, transparency and accountability.

By blocking this bill the liberal opposition is denying non-government schools 28 billion dollars in funding. But more importantly they are holding Australian children back from a truly modern and progressive education revolution.

A revolution that I believe we need in Australia. Once again I add my support to this important bill.