John Williams (NSW, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

It was never budgeted for, and Senator Collins knows that. The money was never in the budget; it was never in the forward estimates. It was a promise, knowing full well that Labor would lose the 2012 election, which they did, of course. So now they keep saying that it is the coalition that is cutting the spending back. You cannot cut back on something that was never ever delivered. It was never funded. It was simply a political statement.

I find it amazing when we see the increase in funding in education. For example, in New South Wales, this year's funding for the government schools is $2.186 billion. For the non-government schools, it is $3.306 billion. So that is about $5½ billion of funding for New South Wales government and non-government schools this year. In 2027, that $5½ billion will go to more than $9 billion—almost double. In fact, that is an 83.1 per cent increase for the government schools and a 56.6 per cent increase for the non-government schools. So here we have the funding going up. If you look across Australia, the figures I have here show that there will be $17½ billion of funding this year for government and non-government schools and $30½ billion of funding by 2027, in 10 years time. So there will be a huge increase in funding by the federal government, and it is needs based funding, I might add.

It is about time the states looked at their education budgets. I know that in the last 10 years, in New South Wales, the federal government has increased spending in real terms—Senator McCarthy, that means above inflation—by 66 per cent. Many of the states have increased their funding to education by only six per cent and seven per cent, yet the liability of education falls on the state government. But we know who is doing the funding. It is the federal government doing the funding.

I have more to say on that briefly, as I watch the clock and see I have only a couple of minutes to go. The government is spending $18.6 billion on schools through real, needs based funds that are fair, transparent and consistent. Labor's alternative is based on 27 special deals that treat students in one state differently from the students in another state. Why would you treat students differently because of a state border? Our plan means that every Australian child, regardless of the state in which they live, is treated consistently based on needs. That is fair, and I say: life is about fairness.

The funding we are providing to schools is fully transparent—that is also fair. Funding to Catholic schools will grow by $1.2 billion over the next four years and $3.4 billion over the next 10 years. Catholic Education retains autonomy to distribute their funding however they please. In other words, a cheque is given to the Catholic Education management, and they allocate the funding where they consider it to be most important. We will continue to fund systemic schools in Catholic education and other parts of the non-government sector directly, and they will continue to have autonomy and accountability for how that funding is distributed. While we know that a strong level of funding is vital, we also know that what is more important is how that funding is used. That is why we have used David Gonski and a panel of education experts to provide advice on most effective teaching and learning strategies to improve student outcomes and school performance.

This is about improving student outcomes. For years we have put billions and billions more money into education and our literacy and numeracy standards have gone down and down and down. Perhaps a little bit more discipline in the schools would be a good thing. Perhaps a little bit more respect for the teachers would be a very good thing. Perhaps, in many cases, parental involvement and parental interest would be a good thing. Those three things—discipline, respect and parental involvement: what do they cost? They cost nothing at all. I think that is where we have really fallen down in our education system over decades: it is the lack of discipline, respect and parental involvement, to some degree. There is the problem in itself. The money is there but we need to do a few other things as well. (Time expired)