Penny Allman-Payne (Queensland, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—I move Greens amendments (1) and (2) on sheet 3038 together:

(1) Schedule 2, item 3, page 10 (after line 26), after section 127A, insert:

127B Annual inquiry by Senate Committee

(1) The Senate Education and Employment References Committee, or such other committee constituted under a resolution of the Senate, must, by the end of each year:

(a) conduct an inquiry into the matter covered by subsection (2); and

(b) report the Committee's findings to the Senate as soon as practicable after completing the inquiry.

(2) The matter covered by this subsection is the level of disadvantage in schools across Australia, including the level of disadvantage in schools when grouped by one or more of the following:

(a) location;

(b) whether the school is a government or non-government school;

(c) any other characteristic or metric that the Committee considers appropriate.

(2) Schedule 2, page 11 (after line 4), at the end of the Schedule, add:

5 Application provision — annual inquiry

The first inquiry conducted by the Senate Education and Employment References Committee, or such other committee constituted under a resolution of the Senate, under section 127B of the Australian Education Act 2013, as inserted by this Schedule, must be completed before 1 January 2027.

The purpose of these amendments is to add to the bill's intent, which is to address equity and disadvantage, to ensure that a regular statement by the minister on the progress of the bilateral agreements is brought forward each year to be inquired into, and it would also compel ACARA or another body to prepare and table a report including such data. This would give us a much better opportunity and additional opportunities to track how we are actually going in addressing inequity, which is a big purpose of this bill. I commend these amendments to the Senate.