Sarah Hanson-Young (SA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—I move Australian Greens amendments (6), (7), (8), (9), (12) and (17) on sheet 8176 together:

(6) Schedule 1 , page 19 (after line 14) , after item 56 , insert:

56A Section 20

Omit "' requiring States and Territories to implement national policy initiatives for school education, as well as"' .

(7) Schedule 1 , item 59 , page 19 (lines 22 and 23) , omit the heading to section 22 , substitute:

22 Conditions of financial assistance—agreements relating to school education

(8) Schedule 1 , item 59 , page 19 (line 24) to page 20 (line 3) , omit subsection 22 ( 1 ).

(9) Schedule 1 , item 59 , page 20 (line 5) , omit "' also "' .

(12) Schedule 1 , item 85 , page 25 (lines 10 to 15) , omit paragraph 77 ( 2A ) ( a ), substitute:

(a) the approved authority cooperates with the States and Territories in which the schools are located in implementing the agreements mentioned in paragraphs 22(2) (a) and (b); and

(17) Schedule 1 , item 175 , page 37 (lines 8 to 10) , omit subparagraph 130 ( 5 ) ( a ) ( i ).

These amendments relate to a number of elements that remain in the bill that would require the states to fulfil certain obligations in order to get the funding that has been put aside by the federal government. We are concerned that, in the absence of knowing what these conditions on teachers or states may be, simply leaving that to the discretion of the minister through regulation is not enough certainty for our states, our schools, our principals or our teachers, and we would prefer to see those elements removed. After the Gonski review of these funding arrangements, whenever that reports—at the end of this year or early next year—we can look at what recommendations there may be and what impacts they may have on state and territory school systems. It seems a bit premature to be putting powers in this bill to put restrictions on state and territory school systems without knowing the content of those restrictions. So we would like to have those removed to ensure that we have a full, transparent process going forward for how we engage with the conditions on states, if and when recommendations come from David Gonski and his forthcoming report.