Tony Sheldon (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I know Senator Allman-Payne is very dedicated to making sure that the best outcomes are happening in our schools. She is a very important contributor to a number of the Senate committees that I'm on.

The Minister for Education has said that Australia has a good education system but it needs to be a lot better and a lot fairer. I agree that the funding is important—it's critical. The government is committed to working with state and territory governments to get every school to 100 per cent of its fair funding level. Funding is critical; it is important. The current National School Reform Agreement was signed off in 2018 by the member for Cook. Of course, that speaks of a wasted decade and missed opportunities in school education. The Productivity Commission, which I'll go to a bit later in my allotted time, was damning in its assessment of the former government's plan for school education, finding a series of deep-seated problems with the way the system was operating.

Last month, the Australian Education Research Organisation released research revealing that, under the current agreement, very few students who start behind or fall behind are able to catch up. Only about one in five students who are below the minimum standard in year 3 are above it in year 9. The coalition's school agreement has not worked. This is a critical, fundamental problem that we're facing right at this moment. That's why the Minister for Education has said multiple times that funding is important but what it does is also critical.

The Commonwealth funding per student in government schools went up by seven per cent over the last year, from $3,829 per student in 2022 to $4,096 in 2023. Critically, to make sure that we have the right funding, this includes an increase in funding for government schools from $10.6 billion in 2023 to $11.1 billion in 2024. Commonwealth funding for government schools will continue to grow during the one-year extension of the current agreement.

Critical issues were raised in the Productivity Commission's review of the National School Reform Agreement regarding the present system's difficulties and the need for reform. For example, in finding 3.1 of their report, they said:

To date, the National Policy Initiatives are unlikely to have affected the education outcomes of Australian students.

So, a policy was put into effect to improve the outcomes, and the Productivity Commission said there's a definite problem with regard to how those outcomes are being achieved. The report went on to say:

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The Productivity Commission report went on to look at the question of making sure that the right thing is done. Of course, the Liberals couldn't get it right. Finding 3.2 was:

The National School Reform Agreement has gaps that undermine its effectiveness in facilitating collective, national efforts to lift student outcomes.

The shortfalls the report outlines are incredibly important. They include:

I could go on to the other issues the Productivity Commission raised, but some of those startling results I've given are important.

Also, and I think Senator Allman-Payne already touched on this, there's an issue with the incredibly long hours for teachers and how teachers' workloads have increased substantially. The workload of Australian teachers is greater than the OECD average. Australian teachers spend more time on non-teaching tasks and less time on teaching tasks than their international counterparts. Teacher workload has increased over time, and many teachers cite heavy workload as a reason for wanting to leave the profession.

There are a number of reforms that are critically important to making sure that we get this right. Part of those reforms are being raised in the discussions that are taking place with the states and territories regarding their obligations and our funding to make sure that, along with them, we get a better result for all students, all parents and all teachers across the Australian community.