Bridget McKenzie (Victoria, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you very much. No, you do not need any help from me in chairing or anything else.

It was the majority view of the committee examining all of the evidence before it to support this bill notwithstanding there were issues raised. I think the minister in his public commentary and other senators have dealt fairly and squarely with those concerns. It is our view that, if fully enacted as presented here today, this bill will create a system for public funding of schools that is fair and transparent. That has been one of the great critiques. The Commonwealth tips a lot of money—a record bucket of money—into certain systems, whether they be state systems, whether they be private school systems such as the Catholic education system, and has no real understanding or visual oversight of where that is going. To have a transparent system where parents and taxpayers can actually hold state governments and education systems more generally accountable for where they spend their money and who is getting that share of the funding is appropriate. It is absolutely the right policy position to take.

The bill will also ensure the highest levels of funding growth will occur where the need is greatest. Isn't that fantastic? Where you have some out-of-school needs which are actually going to impact how you engage with the education sector, the Commonwealth is prepared to back that and to ensure that the school has a level of funding to assist with overcoming those barriers. What I know about representing rural and regional Australians is the level of educational disadvantage is incredible. On any measure—NAPLAN results, PISA results, participation in higher education, you name it—rural and regionality is an issue with educational engagement. That must change. It is why our government has initiated an in independent review into rural and regional education and it is why one of the loadings is about the location and size of a school.

Similarly, so is SES. We know that the 10 electorates in this country with the lowest median income levels are in rural and regional Australia. This not only deals with inequity right now and over the coming 10 years but backs in the investment we need in my communities to ensure we have the skilled, engaged, educated young people and ongoing workforce that we need to fully participate in all the opportunities that the 21st century brings for us in agriculture and across the board.

It also puts an end to students with the same needs being treated differently depending on where they live. Anyone that is interested in fairness, do not listen to the opposition. If they are talking about fairness on one side and Gonski on the other, full stop turn it off. You are not hearing the truth. I sat and had a bit of a listen to the opening couple of lines of the shadow minister for education in her speech on this bill's second reading, and it was absolutely unbelievable. The level of falseness that she pursued through that speech was very concerning. The ABC Fact Check is not always great for my side of politics, but I tell you: they got it right on the Labor Party's claims about the Gonski funding—that the Labor Party was misleading not just the parliament but the entire nation around any talk of the $22 billion cuts—and yet we allow that conversation to go on. I see you nodding, Senator Marshall—