Bridget McKenzie (Victoria, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the report.

As deputy chair of the Education and Employment References Committee inquiry into Access to real learning: the impact of policy, funding and culture on students with disability, I will say that it was an inquiry that the committee undertook with diligence. We travelled right around the country; we heard from parents, we heard from students and we heard from educators themselves. We heard from unions and we heard—I think, most compellingly—from those students themselves who have a disability. They came before the committee and told us of their experience—their very real, lived experience—of the education systems right across jurisdictions in our country. I am disappointed to say that it is not great out there. It is not great out there: there are very mixed experiences for our students and their parents are doing it tough.

Some parents are shifting neighbourhoods so that their child can access a quality education system. We heard that time and time again. We heard of principals who were not enforcing the disability standards in their schools. We heard of mixed responses. But we did hear of some fantastic examples of schools, of principals, of teachers and of parents creating a really positive environment for students with a disability in their area. That was good to hear, but there is much work to do in this area. The sad evidence presented at hearings brought home that students with disabilities and their families are faced with ongoing challenges that, if unchecked by substantive action, will contribute not only to learning deficits and financial hardships but also to poor future employment prospects.

There are matters of inclusion right across the board. Families need to be made aware of their rights to access education for their children with disabilities, particularly when various state and territory jurisdictions around Australia ignore the disability standards and have less-than-inclusive attitudes and practices in their schools. We heard time and time again that it was absolutely the fabulous teachers and inclusive leadership from the school principals and community members that led to really positive outcomes in classrooms. Too often the evidence that we heard was that students with a disability were being cared for, not educated, by the schools. Whether or not your child has a disability, there should be an educative process that they can go through in our schools—in our mainstream schools predominantly. The number of stories of parents being turned away from schools with their students with disabilities being told to go to special schools when the parents and, in many cases, the students absolutely wanted that inclusive, mainstream educative experience was very sad.

I think it is important to note for the record that, contrary to what recommendations 1 and 2 in the report suggest, the Commonwealth government has already committed to needs based support for students with a disability and to record funding. We heard concerning evidence that the needs of students with a disability need to be addressed with care and compassion, not political rhetoric, so it was very disappointing that we had to provide additional comments to the report simply to state the facts in this area. Nobody could actually argue with the evidence before the committee. No senator who actually heard the evidence would want to walk away from our responsibility as a Commonwealth government. But let's be very clear: the responsibility for education lies primarily with state governments, and it is their role to ensure that all children with a disability in their jurisdiction, irrespective of whether they are attending a state school, Catholic school or other type of independent school, have access to an educative process and actually get a great education, which is their right in this country.

The report also pointed out that funding for students has often been uncertain and that families could not plan ahead properly. Certainty of funding is highly important to enable long-term improvements in schools and overcome barriers such as trouble enrolling or, as we heard, the practices of gatekeeping, lack of reasonable adjustments and exclusion from activities. A lack of support in rural and remote areas compounded the problems for those students and their families. Never before have students with a disability received so much funding. This report confirms how important this increase is when, unfortunately, our students with disabilities are being left behind and their potential is still not being realised in the midst of negative educational experiences.

Coalition senators, through the writing of our additional comments, would also like to put on the record for that for the 2014-17 period the Commonwealth is contributing more than $5 billion, with funding rising by $100 million this year alone. The students with a disability loading was introduced by this government and is exactly the same loading formula as applied by the previous Labor government in accordance with the Gillard inspired Australian Education Act 2013. I think it is very important to put that on the record. I would also like to remind the Senate that the Commonwealth, whilst the provider of one-third of the current funding for schools, is not the primary funder of schools in Australia. As I have said previously, that responsibility lies wholly and solely with state ministers of education.

We heard through this inquiry that some states were definitely better than others in fulfilling their responsibilities to students with disabilities in their jurisdictions: including and supporting students and aiding teachers in tailoring their teaching. Unfortunately, others blatantly disregarded disability standards and there seemed to be a lack of understanding in certain areas of those responsibilities. Those governments must urgently address these deficiencies in their own education systems lest claims of discrimination be faced.

From 2016 Commonwealth funding will be informed by the nationally consistent collection of data on school students with disability—a first. Australia has never had such a database to work from, and it will be a highly valuable tool to monitor a cohort of young people whose educational needs have previously been neglected by many institutions. A far more generous landscape now exists after the increase in education support for students with a disability. While not all the educational benefits will be visible immediately, the day in, day out, grassroots support of their education will form the building blocks of the potential that we want our students with a disability to unlock.

I absolutely support the efforts of parents of children with disabilities. Their passion and advocacy for their students was unfailing. It did not matter which state we were in; there were parents and, indeed, students with a disability being very loud in their advocacy for the children's right to a quality education.

One of the issues that I found most concerning was that many young teachers who are training are not given any training in the pedagogical principles underlying how to actually educate a child with, maybe, autism or hearing problems. There was no training available in any consistent or coherent way across universities that are preparing oftentimes young people to enter classrooms where there are upwards of 20 per cent of students with special needs. I think that is appalling. I think it is absolutely fantastic that our report highlights that as an issue. I hope deans of education across this country will actually take into account the evidence provided through this report in their responsibility to ensure that the teachers of tomorrow are able to address the education needs of students with a disability in our country.

Australia expects that all Australian children receive similar opportunities for a quality education regardless of location, disability or socioeconomic background. Education is power, education is enlightenment and, as Sam Seaborn said, 'It is the silver bullet.' I absolutely believe that it breaks down barriers for our students with disabilities. It will give them the tools not only to enjoy life but also to essentially be able to participate fully in all that our great nation can provide including work and allow them to contribute in a wider way to society.

I commend the government for its ground-breaking work for students with a disability. I commend the report and the recommendations that are made in the report. I hope that the teachers that support our students with disabilities and their parents will be recognised for their advocacy and that we will be able to support them with a needs based funding model that will adequately reflect the cost of delivering quality education to them.

Sue Lines (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I too rise to speak on the Education and Employment References Committee inquiry into Access to real learning: the impact of policy, funding and culture on students with disability. Surprisingly I agree with most of what Senator McKenzie said about the evidence we heard when we inquired into the education of children with special needs in our schools. I certainly agree that we heard shocking evidence. Personally I was very shocked to hear of the struggle that parents have getting their children enrolled in schools, not just once but year in year out. Parents have to fight the system, fight the gatekeepers—as Senator McKenzie described them—in order to get their children the education that they are absolutely entitled to as children living in Australia, where not only is it a legal requirement for children to go to school but obviously we want our children in schools so they are able to learn. As Senator McKenzie said, it did not matter which state we were in, we heard the same evidence. It did not matter whether it was the public or the private system; there was no difference in the fight and the struggle that parents had to enrol their children. Parents told us in evidence that they had taken the matter up with the Equal Opportunity Commission, had taken the matter up with their local state ministers and had taken the matter up with their members of parliament simply to get their child enrolled in school.

Most of us, and certainly I, subscribe to the view that school is compulsory in every state and territory for children between the ages of five and 17. Well certainly if your child has a disability, it is not. The doors are locked and you have to fight to get them in. Of course not all parents are in the position to put that fight up. We heard that you had to fight in kindergarten, had to fight in year 1, had the same fight in year 2 and so on every single year and then you had a completely different fight once again when it was time for your child to go to high school.

If they were successful in getting their child into school, whether it was the public system of the private system, we heard evidence that parents were paying the school so that their child could get access to education, whether it was for a particular piece of equipment or for a staff member. Parents are not only having to fight the system but are having to contribute themselves as well. Of course not every parent is in the position to do that and of course it did not guarantee that anybody's child was better off.

We also heard, appallingly, where children needed perhaps an iPad or some other special aid to help with their learning that often schools deny them. They were told it slowed the class down or that it was not appropriate or that it was not allowed. These were really eye-opening allegations that parents were making. We also heard, as Senator McKenzie said, of children spending four hours a day on a bus because the parents had been unable to enrol their children in their local school and had been forced to take them elsewhere, which required them to be on a two-hour journey one way and a two-hour journey back. When I asked if the states regulate this, if there are limits to the amount of time children can spend on a school bus, I was told that it was true but it seemed that people turned a blind eye if there child had a special need—absolutely disgraceful. So of course that meant that the child was not able to use the bathroom and the child was not able to eat food during those hours. All of the things which most of us take for granted when our children attend school were denied to children with a disability.

The other alarming factor was that children with a disability are often not treated as learners, which is a fundamental tenant of education. We send our children to school to get an education, to engage in the system as learners. But often when they went to school, the teachers and the school staff had a very uninformed point of view about what that child could achieve, never ever saying that they want this child to be an exceptional learner. They never have those high expectations they have for children without a disability for children with disability. The first step in our report acknowledges that children are learners no matter what their disability and that some of those children need additional assistance.

We did hear from children. We were very particular that we wanted to hear in our inquiry from children with disability, and they told us time and time again of the struggles. Bullying of children with special needs happens right across our system. There are some fundamental issues which must be addressed as a matter of priority by the Turnbull government.

Unfortunately that is about the end of where Senator McKenzie and I agree because, fundamentally, the way the Turnbull government is funding children with disability is making the struggle much harder. In fact we heard from no witnesses who supported the current funding regime. It is not Labor's funding regime—that is an error. This is a regime imposed by the Abbott and Turnbull government so we now have children with special needs being funded in accordance with CPI.

The Catholic Education Office told us that if this funding continued that their schools catering for children with special needs would close, that they could not afford to keep the doors open.

And we heard time and time again from advocates and from associations—from any range of witnesses—who told us that the current funding was not enough. These were not parents. What the parents want is the same thing that every parent wants, and that is a decent education for their children. They were not asking for the world. They were not being unrealistic. But parents told us very clearly that the current funding model is a broken promise. We heard from educational experts that, if years 4 and 5 of Gonski had continued to be funded, it would have enormously assisted those with disability, but of course we know that that was a broken promise. We know that the 'unity ticket' was completely abandoned. That has a much more severe outcome for children with disability.

Our first recommendation is that the Turnbull government restore the Gonski funding that they have taken from the final two years, and of course we want to see that students with disabilities are funded on the basis of need. They are not funded on the basis of need now. They are funded in accordance with the cost of living, with a CPI figure—a long, long way from funding according to need. And we do want to see the data collection continue. It was interesting to hear Senator McKenzie say that it is going to happen in 2016. Well, the 2016 school year started yesterday and last week, and that funding has not changed. Children with disability in our school system cannot wait any longer. They are being discriminated against because the funding is not there.

Of course, yes, we need to improve our teacher training, of course we need ongoing in-servicing and of course we need schools to be inclusive. We need that culture change, but that will not happen when gatekeepers put up the gate the minute a parent comes to enrol their child with a special need. Fundamentally it is about cost. It was made absolutely stark throughout the inquiry that, no matter where a parent went to enrol their child who had special needs, the first thing they were confronted with was cost. I am sure that there would be very few parents in Australia who, when they take their child to be enrolled, are confronted with the cost. Senator Dastyari told us earlier today that he had enrolled his daughter in school for the first time. I bet the school did not say to Senator Dastyari, 'My goodness; it's going to cost X amount of dollars to educate Hannah.' But, for children with special needs, that is the first thing that parents hear about: the cost. So we do need to get the funding right and we need the Turnbull government to live up to its commitments, to abandon its CPI funding, which is harming children with disabilities in our school system, to get real and to fund on the basis of need. The data is there. The Turnbull government has refused to release it. Let us get going and get that funding model right so that children with disabilities are treated with respect.

Alex Gallacher (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The question is that the Senate take note of the report.

Question agreed to.