Penny Wright (SA, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I seek leave to move an amendment to business of the Senate notice of motion No. 6.

Leave granted.

I move the amendment in the terms circulated in the chamber:

Omit all words after “with particular reference to”, substitute:

(a) the adequacy of funding for schools educating a high proportion of children from disadvantaged backgrounds and with high needs;

(b) the structure and governance of school administration – local and central – and its impact on teaching and learning;

(c) the adequacy of tools available for teachers to create and maintain an optimal learning environment;

(d) the capacity of schools to respond to family, social and community factors to create an optimal learning environment;

(e) factors influencing the selection, training, professional development, career progression and retention of teachers in the Australian education system; and

(f) other related matters.

I seek leave to make a short statement.

Gavin Marshall (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Leave is granted for one minute.

Penny Wright (SA, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Australian Greens are seeking to amend the reference because it is imperative that we consider the issues to be explored in the inquiry in the overall context of what the investment in Australian schools is, and its adequacy. We know that the Gonski review of schools funding has made significant findings and recommendations in relation to the funding of Australian schools, and in particular that Australia has been underinvesting in its schools in comparison with other OECD nations and, particularly, underinvesting in public education, which educates two in three Australian children and the majority of children from disadvantaged and high-needs backgrounds. Gonski has found it is clearly because of this underinvestment that there is a deep inequity, with a significant gap in achievement, between children on the basis of their backgrounds. In the absence of this term of reference it would be a distraction from the serious business of the Gonski review of school funding. It is important that we consider the backgrounds of children and the social and community factors that affect a child's ability to learn, and that is another term of reference that we would be seeking to insert.

Gavin Marshall (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The question is that the amendment to business of the Senate notice of motion No. 6 moved by Senator Wright be agreed to.

The question now is that business of the Senate notice of motion No. 6, referring a matter to the Education, Employment and Workplace Relations References Committee, be agreed to.

Question agreed to.