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

I rise to speak on the Better and Fairer Schools (Funding and Reform) Bill 2024 because I'm a product of the public school system in this country and proud of it. The Albanese Labor government is proud to introduce this bill to improve the futures of millions of Australian children. This is a bill to increase funding for our public schools because we know public schools are the backbone of education in Australia. Overwhelmingly, Australian mums and dads send their children to public schools. In fact 64 per cent of Australian kids attend public schools across our country. I am, as I said, a proud participant and a proud product of the public education system, and I know that other public educated Australian MPs and senators would also be very proud of their public education.

Education is the most powerful cause for change. Education invests in individuals, communities, the economy and society, and it changes lives every single day, from kindergarten to year 12 to TAFE and university. Education creates opportunities for success, improves health outcomes and actually delivers you a longer life expectancy. Nothing is more powerful than that. Our public school teachers across the country do the heavy lifting amongst our schools. There are over 6,700 public primary schools and high schools in Australia, and those teachers and school staff are working every single day to give our children the very best opportunities to live a fulfilling life. Public education is literally for everyone, for all Australians, which is why the Albanese Labor government and the Labor Party will always be there for public education. We will always put it first.

The Minister for Education, Jason Clare, was recently in Tasmania, and we were talking about how education plays such a significant role in ending disadvantage and helping kids who fall behind, but we need to do more. Still too many public schools are underfunded. One in 10 children in Australia right now is still below the minimum standards that we set for literacy and numeracy. This must be fixed for this generation and for future generations. This is what this bill does and what the Albanese Labor government has set out to do. That's why we are reforming the system. It needs to be fixed.

In 2011 David Gonski delivered the report that recommended a new funding formula for schools—what we now call the schooling resource standard or SRS—and we on this side embraced it because it was from an expert who knew his stuff. The SRS sets the estimated level of total public funding for each school and sets out that it should receive that funding to enable the school to provide the education for the children attending that school. At the moment, the base per student amount is $13,570 for a primary school and $17,053 for a high school. The Gonski model, or the needs based funding, deserves the support and respect of this chamber. It really should be non-negotiable.

There should be bipartisan support to ensure that we meet our obligations and that non-government schools are funded at the level that Gonski set out all those years ago, are on track to get there or are above it and will come back down to the baseline where they should be. But most public schools are not funded to the level that Gonski advised. The Commonwealth government provides 80 per cent of the SRS funding for nongovernment schools, and the state and territory governments provide the last 20 per cent. For public schools, it's the reverse. The Commonwealth provides 20 per cent of the SRS funding, and the states and territories as supposed to provide another 75 per cent. Some do, some don't. That means that there's at least a five per cent gap.

At the last election, we promised to work with all states and territories to get all public schools on a path to 100 per cent SRS. This bill that we, the Commonwealth government, introduced ratcheted up the funding for public schools. The Minister for Education, Jason Clare, negotiated with state and territory governments. We know it was really important that this legislation was passed to make it very hard for a future government to rip that money out. After all, we know on this side of the chamber that, if Mr Dutton ever becomes prime minister of this country, he will gut wherever he can. We know that they much prefer to support the private sector when it comes to school and everything else, but we support public education.

This great reform will change lives for the better. Kids in public school deserve the same opportunities in life as those whose parents choose to send them to a private school. It means that, when the Commonwealth government does a deal with the states and territories to increase funding to public schools, that bigger contribution—that bigger share from the Commonwealth—becomes the new floor for states and territories. It locks in funds for the better, and it can't be changed. That is so critical. So far this year, the Albanese government with Minister Clare have started locking in these deals. The deal has been done in Western Australia, the deal has been done in the Northern Territory and the deal is being done in my home state of Tasmania.

I was at the signing ceremony in October and was immensely proud to be part of it, because it improves the lives of Tasmanians. Tasmanian children are some at the lowest end of our numeracy and literacy skills in this country. It's an absolute disgrace in a country as rich as this. But my home state, governed by Liberals for far too long, have run the education of our children into the ground. It's an absolute disgrace. But these agreements basically mean that the Australian government and future Australian governments will now provide more funding for state and territory government schools, which will be beneficial for our children and the children that follow on. It means a bipartisan commitment from the federal and state governments and the territory governments to improve public education. It's a win for education, and, most importantly, it's a win for our children.

These agreements mean more funding will go to public schools from 1 January 2025. In the case of Western Australia, it means that every public school will be fully funded by 1 January 2026, just over 12 months away. In the case of Tasmania, it means that every public school will be fully funded by no later than 2029. But what I did witness that day when we were doing the signing was that the Liberal premier of the day, along with the education minister and the Minister for Education, Jason Clare, gave a commitment to try to improve that date and bring in 100 per cent funding way before 2029. I commend the premier for finally doing something and working with our minister. In the case of the Northern Territory, it promises to be truly transformational. Reforming education should always be a continued project. More resourcing is always going to be welcome, but we must also listen to teachers, students and the experts. We must to talk to them to hear what they need.

Education is changing. It is delivering to us a bold new world dominated by technology and instant communication. These crucial reforms include phonics checks and numeracy checks in year 1 or earlier to identify children before they fall too far behind. Evidence based teaching and catch-up tutorials will help these children catch up and keep them at that level. This extra funding for mental health and wellbeing services in schools, including counsellors, psychologists and full-service schools, is also very important, and is critically important at this time where we know the impact of social media.