Deborah O'Neill (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am really pleased to speak once again in this chamber to the passion that ignited my entire career until I came to this place—that is, a love of learning, a love of teaching and a love of the power of education, because it transforms the lives of all those who touch it: those who are delivering it and those who are receiving it. When it is done well it is an incredibly powerful tool for advancing our entire community.

When this report—which received a government response today—was released in May 2013, it was not a bad report. It was a report in which there was a general consensus that things needed to change in Australia to provide equitable access to education to put money where money should go, and to make sure that the principles that we espoused in the Melbourne declaration—about engaging students and giving them a fair opportunity in life—are realised in this place.

But we have to remember that the report was delivered in the context of the community understanding that the Gonski reforms were happening. The community believed that money was going to be allocated to five key areas to top up what was needed and make sure that those who were way out west—away from the cities—and those in rural and remote were considered, and Indigenous kids, kids from low socio-economic backgrounds and kids with disabilities, and young people who were coming to school with little English were considered. These were critical areas that the government—on the advice of Gonski—had considered were vital areas to respond to with funding. That is where we were going.

And we were going in that direction because of some of the evidence that is in the original report. Mr Taylor, who represented the Isolated Children's Parents Association of New South Wales declared to the committee:

We cannot keep doing the same thing and expect the gap to narrow or for the situation to improve. We have to concede that we have a crisis in educational opportunity and outcome in rural and remote areas, set ourselves targets for improvement and become accountable for making that improvement happen. That will require innovation. That will require translating successful programs for isolated students from other schools within Australia and internationally and multiplying those programs across our own schools. That will require collaboration rather than competition in our rural schooling sector.

Mr Taylor could not have been more right. And the Australian people generally agreed with that principle.

This government has revealed the depths of its deception fully this week with regard to the promise to make no cuts to the ABC and no cuts to SBS, along with no cuts to health and no cuts to education. This government has revealed itself to the Australian people, sadly, a year after it was elected. But as it went into the election, on the back of this report, it was looking not so bad. By declaring that they were on a unity ticket with Labor on Gonski funding, they effectively took schooling out of the equation when people were making the decision about how to cast their vote at the ballot. It was an act of gross deception, because since coming into government—barely weeks after arriving in government—this Abbott government walked away from anything that looked like the Gonski commitments. It was certainly not a unity ticket.

So the reality is that, while we have this amazing report, today we have finally got the government's response. Those who are listening to the proceedings of the Senate this afternoon will hear, in the government's response, how little the government are going to do. They claim that the first step in achieving quality education is to lift the quality, professionalism and status of the teaching profession. They go straight back to the old mantra. 'It's all the teachers' fault; we'll just sort out the teachers.' Do you know why they are doing that? They are doing that because they do not want to invest the money. They simply do not understand that we need to invest the money in our students, our teachers and our schools. Certainly, education of our teachers and lifting standards and professionalism is part of the answer, but it should not be the first thing that the government identifies in its response.

A couple of the critical recommendations of the report refer to exactly what I was mentioning—the funding. The report says:

The committee recommends that the COAG Standing Council on School Education and Early Childhood work with the Catholic and Independent School sectors to further develop programs to ensure that parents and guardians have the highest expectations for each child, regardless of socio economic status.

And what do we have from this government? We do not have a commitment of money. We do not have an acknowledgement or an agreement; we have the weakest possible language that 'the government notes' the committee report. There is recommendation after recommendation in the original report—about going to COAG, about dealing with this on a national level, about the integration of the state and federal government systems—but the minute they got into government, this mob over here ran away. They tore up agreements left, right and centre in health and in education. They tore them up, ran away from their responsibilities to have an integrated education program for Australians across the entire country. We have got a national curriculum, but we certainly have not got a national funding model. And whatever chance we had of getting to it—and we were so close—the change of government gave that sad lot the opportunity to rip that possibility away from all of those who are attending school now. The disgrace that will live on in terms of the legacy of those opposite will be felt by those children from whom this government have walked away. They walked away from their so-called unity ticket on Gonski.

I find it hard to believe that in all of the recommendations we look through here that 'the committee notes', 'the committee notes', 'the committee notes', 'the committee notes' is pretty much the main response that this government have given: 'We notice that it's going on over there. Yep, it was a nice piece of paper.' There is only one area that I could find in the committee report—and I have looked through it—that the Australian government support. Only one thing, and that is the committee recommendation about schools for students with disability and learning difficulties. The reason they are supporting that is because we had that legislation back here in the chamber only a couple of weeks ago and we have been fighting to make sure they cannot walk away from their commitments to the disability sector. We came in here and we had to fix up a mess of legislation—which we see day after day from this incompetent government—just so that kids with disabilities and their schools could get their funding. And some of you might remember that we were in here debating about how Aboriginal children who are in remote communities and who are going to go to boarding school needed that funding to come through too. The Senate delivered one vital thing, and that is the only thing in this response, in the time I have had to read it, that I can see the government is doing anything about.

Those opposite have absolved themselves of any responsibility, as the national government of this country, for integration with the states. And they do it under the cover of mealy-mouthed phrases: 'We need to move away from the states. They need to have their own autonomy to choose. We should just let the states do their own thing. You know, they have a right—we want to move away from command and control.' Well that is a load of codswallop! What they want to move away from is actually putting funding on the line, from honestly and sincerely committing to the children of this nation and making sure that those who do need the money in exactly the way that Gonski declared get the money that they need.

This government are running every which way from every commitment they have ever made. No cuts to education? We know they have taken $30 billion out—matched that and raised it by taking $50 billion out of health. 'No cuts to health, no cuts to education, no cuts to the ABC, no cuts to SBS'. This response we see here from the government is exactly the same sort of story. This is, 'We will cut to blazes anything to do with education, and we'll do it under the cover of these fancy reports and terminologies—command and control, autonomy to the states.' But it is all just a cover. If you analysed how much each person on that side of the chamber invested in their own children's education, it would tell you pretty quickly that they think money matters. And it should not have to in this country. I understand the power of a great education and I have paid for great education for my children too, but I want every Australian to get it because it is a right in this country. You should not have to have money to get a decent education in Australia any more, but this country will preside over exactly that sort of a mantra. (Time expired)