Jacinta Collins (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Cabinet Secretary) Share this | Hansard source

Pursuant to order, I present the final report of the Select Committee on School Funding together with the Hansard record of proceedings and documents presented to the committee.

Ordered that the reports be printed.

I move:

That the Senate take note of the report.

The OECD has consistently argued for countries to address disadvantage and increase equity in school systems. They say—this is a particularly pertinent quote:

The highest performing education systems are those that combine equity with quality. They give all children opportunities for a good quality education … Educational failure also imposes high costs on society. Poorly educated people limit economies' capacity to produce, grow and innovate. School failure damages social cohesion and mobility, and imposes additional costs on public budgets to deal with the consequences—higher spending on public health and social support and greater criminality, among others. For all these reasons, improving equity in education and reducing school failure should be a high priority in all OECD education policy agendas.

Australia has, in addition to the well-known declining performance issues, equity issues far greater than in many OECD countries. After years attempting to thwart action on these issues—and, indeed, after giving false election assurances—Minister Pyne ironically acknowledged this point just last week with respect to direct instruction. Yet this approach from the now government is what has informed the problems that led to the need for this select committee inquiry in the first instance.

The Senate Select Committee on School Funding inquired into and reported on the development and implementation of national school funding arrangements and school reform. In particular, the committee looked at the consequences of the change in school funding policy from the National Plan for School Improvement—known as the Gonski reforms—to this government's Students First policy.

During its inquiry, the committee conducted public hearings in six states and heard the views of a wide range of stakeholders: public, Catholic and independent school associations; parents; teachers; principals; unions; and some state and territory governments. The fact that we received evidence from only some state and territory governments is, indeed, a story for another day. In addition to the public hearings, the committee received over 3,400 submissions over the course of the inquiry. The evidence collected through the committee's inquiry clearly shows the complexity of previous pre-Gonski funding arrangements, and the ground-breaking consensus achieved by the Gonski report. It shows the agreement and goodwill achieved among jurisdictions covering over 80 per cent of Australian school students, through the implementation of a national plan for school improvement. It also shows the disruption and confusion which has resulted from the change from the NPSI to the Students First funding arrangements.

The Gonski review stressed the need for an equitable school funding system: one that ensures that differences in educational outcomes are not the result of differences in wealth, income, power or possessions. This ground-breaking, historic review involved a detailed examination of the issues that were confronting Australian schools and the concerns around a decline in our outcomes. The review recommended a national needs-based and sector-blind school funding model. The new funding model would provide a level of base funding to all schools and additional targeted funding to disadvantaged students, in order to remove inequities and minimise the identified performance gap.

Submissions to the committee's inquiry told of the strong consensus that was developed through the Gonski process across Australia's public, Catholic and independent schooling sectors. Through the National Plan for School Improvement the former Labor government was able to use this consensus amongst school stakeholders to implement a national needs based funding model grounded in the findings of the Gonski review.

In total, the Labor government expected that the National Plan for School Improvement, when fully implemented by 2020, would see an additional $6.5 billion spent on schools per annum by the Commonwealth and state and territory governments. It is important to highlight here that this was a venture involving all governments in improving investment in schools. Contrary to the Commission of Audit's and indeed this government's claims, this outcome represented half of one per cent of GDP and did not bring Australia above average OECD spending in schooling. The new funding model was accompanied by an improvement framework for schools and teaching, with five areas of reform identified and agreed to for implementation. It was not only about funding.

Submissions to the committee demonstrated that stakeholders welcomed the certainty of funding under the national plan. The six years of funding provided under the National Plan for School Improvement allowed for schools and state governments to plan the allocation of funds based on need. However, following the 2013 federal election and despite promises of a 'unity ticket' on education policy, the Abbott government has begun to effectively unpick the Gonski funding arrangements and the national plan. Although for the first four years funding will remain as set out under the Australian Education Act 2013, after 2017 funding will be indexed to just the CPI. By the government's own projections this will result in a $30 billion cut to the education sector over the medium term. Such significant cuts jeopardise the widespread improvements in student outcomes that were to flow from a strategically funded needs based model. As a result, the quality of education provided to those Australian school children most in need of additional support will remain inferior. Australia will fail to provide our students with the opportunity to access the best possible education. As a consequence, we will fail to realise the full potential of our human capital.

The evidence gathered by this inquiry shows that a very significant majority of school funding stakeholders supported the findings of the Gonski review and the arrangements that were developed subsequently. As a result of the inquiry, the committee believes that the Abbott government's changes to school funding arrangements will be detrimental to Australian school students and the broader Australian community. The changes put at risk adequate funding for those students most in need—for example, students with disability.

At the recent budget estimates, coalition senators wrongly claimed that it was the Abbott government that had delivered a needs based funding model. In fact, without the Gonski review, without the National Plan for School Improvement negotiations with the states and territories—which, indeed, may not have been perfect—and without the passage of the Australian Education Act, then there would be no national needs based funding model in Australia. Under the Abbott government's arrangements, a needs based funding model will last only four years. After that, amendments to the Australian Education Act and the low-level indexation will mean that schools and the students they support cannot depend on adequate funding. In fact, in some cases it goes backwards—whether it is through limited state contributions or the consequences of the changes that this government made.

The committee's eight recommendations aim to ameliorate the grim future for Australian school funding. Chief among these recommendations is that the government should honour its pre-election commitments to fully implement the national needs based, sector blind funding model incorporated in the national plan to improve equity across Australian schools. Further, we highlight that the plan in its totality should be implemented and the six-year period over which it was to be introduced maintained. The government should also conduct and not pre-empt the reviews that were built into the National Education Reform Agreement and strive for equitable funding arrangements for schools most in need.

I would like to thank the committee and indeed the secretariat for the detailed work that went into this comprehensive report, but also highlight the contribution of the Australian education community. There is an enormous wealth of capital that will be ignored by this government at its peril. (Time expired)