Helen Polley (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak for the Better and Fairer Schools (Funding and Reform) Bill 2024, because, as I said earlier today, I'm very proud of the public education I had. Although I didn't go all the way through the public system, my children have done so, and I believe in a public education system. The Albanese Labor government is proud of this bill because we know how important it is to give our children the best possible start, and education is key to ensuring millions of Australian students get the opportunities that they need to have not only a great education but to be prepared for the world and our future. That will open doors for them.

We know in this country the public education system is the backbone of education in Australia—overwhelmingly. More mums and dads send their children to a public school than to the private system, with 64 per cent of Australian children going to our public schools. Like every piece of legislation and reform that we are bringing before us now, nothing is ever perfect. But we do know that we have to start addressing the concerns, highlighted by the other side of the chamber as well as this side, that too many young Australians are not reaching NAPLAN's criteria in terms of where they should be in their year. This is a really good step towards addressing that.

But, from my personal experience, having been in this place for a long time, I don't remember a better education minister than Minister Jason Clare. He knows how important it is—he has lived the experience of how important it is—for many people in this place that they have been the first in their family to go to university. If you don't get that start right at the beginning, if we do not acknowledge and address the issue—there are children now starting school that have never had a story read to them. So they're always going to be behind. We know that if a child has had early childhood education, going through and being cared for in a childcare centre, they normally start off better at school than those who haven't. So what we really need to do is address the fundamental issue, and that means, when children start school and they are behind, that we help them catch up. But you have to continue to monitor those children to make sure that they don't fall behind. It makes all the difference.

We know that education is the most powerful tool that we can use to bring about change in an individual's life. We know how powerful it is to the Australian community to have a well-educated and supported education system, because our kids do much better. Education is an investment in individuals; it's an investment in communities; it's an investment in our economy and our society. My husband's and my youngest daughter works with children with high needs. Those children have academic challenges as well as behavioural problems. I think we still have a little way to go, to say the very least, to actually acknowledge that children learn very differently. If you talk to child psychologists, they will say that we are still failing too many children who don't fit into that educational box where we expect that children go into a classroom and have a teacher with a whiteboard—it is no longer a blackboard, which is what I experienced. We have to be able to allow children to learn in an environment that suits their abilities. We know that there are a lot of children who have special needs. I have to say about my daughter Jasmine I don't know how she does what she does every day. But I know she is passionate, just as we know that teachers throughout this country are passionate in what they do each and every day.

I hear from a very good friend of mine whose daughter has been working as a teacher for a long time of the challenges now that teachers are confronted with in the classroom. We know there are so many issues and people that are doing it hard. We know of the cost-of-living challenges that we are experiencing in our communities today. There are always challenges. There are family breakdowns. We know there are children who struggle with their education. But we also know what social media is doing. So we have to ensure that we have the support structures to wrap around our kids, because our futures depend on that.

The work that has been done to bring this legislation forward—the consultation and the committees that have inquired into education—has only just reinforced what we've all known: how important it is from kindergarten to year 12, to TAFE and to university that the opportunities are there for our young people. We know that those with an education actually have better health outcomes and their life expectancy is longer. We know in this country there's still a gap between our First Nations people and the rest of the population, and we have so much more work to do.

There is the work that Minister Jason Clare has been doing. I spoke earlier today about my experience being with him when he visits schools in Tasmania and the passion that he brings to meet the challenges. Unfortunately, in my home state the challenges of our children are where they sit on NAPLAN, which is very low. Of course there are exceptions to that, and of course we've got great teachers. But there's more that we've got to do. We need to put more tutors in the schools. We need to have more people doing the work, such as the special teachers' assistants that are in classrooms.

What is really unfortunate is that there are schools that are having those special teachers cut right now in New South Wales. At a time when it's recognised that we need more assistance for our children, they're being cut. We know that we need more in my home state of Tasmania. This extra funding that we're doing and the agreements that we have brought together through Minister Clare will bring about better opportunities for those children in Western Australia and in Tasmania. We know how important this funding will be. We know how important it will be to have that support around children's wellbeing. We really aren't just teaching children in education terms reading and writing but teaching them life skills. We're teaching them how to engage and to relate within their communities—the skills that they get to be able to negotiate and to be able to work together in a classroom.

We have seen too many generations who have not had the opportunities and who should have had this sort of reform, which was going to fix these problems. That has been very apparent in too many of our communities right around this country. Now we are bringing this reform. I always think it's sad when you have an opposition—who have been in government for a considerable period of time, like the previous government's 10 years, and failed to actually invest in education—come into this debate and to others in this place and never want to, at least, acknowledge that they could have done better. You might hear acknowledgement from a very few senators on that side about the fact that their government could have done better. I'm very pleased—and I would expect—that the opposition support this legislation today, because it's going to help fix the problems that they created. But it would be nice if occasionally an opposition could actually acknowledge that they didn't do enough. Even in one area would be a change.

This reform is actually going to allow this government to finish the great work that David Gonski brought to the previous Labor government, who wanted to see and actually had a formula to make sure there was fairness in education. I'm very proud of the fact that it's our government that is actually doing that here with this legislation. I want to again acknowledge the great work of Minister Clare. I know when he was dealing with the Tasmanian Minister for Education, the good thing was—I think this was a saving grace, and I can say that as a Tasmanian senator—that the current premier was the former minister for education, so he gets it. He understood what this was about. He was instrumental in getting the Tasmanian Liberal government to the table with the Minister for Education and with Minister Clare to reach this agreement. What is even better is, even when the agreement was signed that this would not be in place in totality until 2029, that they got a commitment together—between a federal Labor government and a state Liberal government—to do everything they can to deliver this funding before 2029. In fact, I have confidence—if the state Liberal government lasts for the next 12 months, with the way they're going; they're very shaky at the moment—that that money will be delivered before 2029.

I am very grateful for the work the Premier did and his commitment to do everything he could to bring forward that funding. Why is he doing that? It is because they acknowledge that we've fallen so far behind in our children being able to have the education they deserve. I put that on record and acknowledge that. It takes special people—and we don't have enough of them in the federal parliament—to acknowledge that more should have been done and could have been done and to now work with a Labor government to bring this about. In the Northern Territory we know what that is going to mean to the Territory and to the children there, to help bring them up to the standard where they need to be.

From our point of view, as a Labor government, we were prepared to work with every state and territory government, irrespective of their political colouring, to make sure that this funding was delivered and that this bill was passed in this place. As I said before, no legislation is ever perfect and there is always more to be done. I think it's a bit like being at home trying to do some maintenance and some housework; there's always more to be done tomorrow. This is an amazing start, but there is, as I said, so much more to be done. We have to continue to evaluate the evidence that is based around professional people, the teachers, the school leaders, the school communities, parents and students themselves. As students get older in the upper years of high school and then go on to college and university, we know how important it is to have them engaged. I commend this bill. (Time expired)