Justine Elliot (Richmond, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I too rise to speak on the Australian Education Amendment Bill 2014. When it comes to education, this government has in fact quite a disgraceful record at all levels of education. At the moment we are seeing some of the higher-education cuts and an increase in fees to go to university. We also see those cuts extended through to primary schools, secondary schools and even right through to child care as well. We are seeing massive cuts right across the board when it comes to education, and we are especially seeing many broken promises.

Let us remember the only reason that we are all here today debating this particular bill is another broken promise by this government to the Australian people, this time specifically on education. The fact is that the Abbott government reneged on their commitment to honour the Gonski funding agreements, and at the same time they introduced the biggest-ever cuts to our schools. We know that before the election they were all running around saying, 'We are all on a unity ticket when it comes to Gonski.' We had all the candidates running around saying that. I know that in my area in Richmond on the north coast of New South Wales all the National Party candidates, some of whom are now National Party members, were all running around the place saying, 'Yes, we are on a unity ticket. We will be funding it.' That, of course, turned out to be completely untrue. Not only has all the additional funding for the vital fifth and sixth years of Gonski reforms been cut but also $30 billion has been stripped from our schools over the next decade. This is the same as sacking one in seven teachers, and will mean an average of $3.2 million less per school, or $1,000 less support per student per year.

Cuts like that will be devastating, particularly to regional and rural areas like my electorate in terms of those massive cuts, and it will really impact the educational opportunities for our children into the future. The fact is that if the government had simply kept their promise of this unity ticket on Gonski there would be no need for this debate, and the benefits would already be flowing. They would already be in place. Let us have a look at it. Before the federal election the government promised full disability loading for education funding in 2015. Now that they have reneged on their promise to the Australian people we need to consider amendments relating to funding for independent special schools. That is why we are here. The fact is that this government shows no concern about equality in education or the future of our children, and it has been confirmed by their lack of funding commitments and their complete lack of creating an effective, sustainable, long-term education system. In fact, the coalition's policy when it comes to schools and education has been all over the place since the Gonski report was released, leaving the public with very little confidence in their ability to deliver when it comes to any educational reforms. Certainly the community has shown a lot of distrust and concern about the whole range of their cuts.

Compare all of that to Labor's massive commitments to education when we were in government—not just in terms of Gonski, but also our Building the Education Revolution and what that meant for our schools. I know that in my electorate there was over $100 million for 90 schools—it really transformed the infrastructure for our schools and made a big difference. I truly stand with my community in supporting the Gonski reforms, as this really was the mechanism for greater accountability and transparency in the delivery of funding for our schools. Indeed, many parents tell me how important they felt it was, and it really was an absolute game changer when it came to education funding. In fact, the Gonski reforms got it right when it came to students, particularly with disability students from Indigenous backgrounds or from socially and economically disadvantaged backgrounds.

We had commissioned this review into school funding, led by David Gonski, when we were in government, and in preparing the Gonski report there were more than 7,000 submissions received, over 39 schools were visited and 71 key education groups across Australia were consulted. It was the biggest review this country has had into education funding in over 40 years, and it was the most extensive. The review identified the problems facing the education sector and the issues that many schools face, particularly with growing inequality, falling results, increasing numbers of lower-performing students and, concerningly, decreasing numbers of some high-performing students. The report was thoroughly researched, and it was backed by very extensive and involved transparent evidence. When the Gonski panel handed down their independent report, which really was a fantastic opportunity to genuinely reform our schools, it not only outlined the problems and challenges but also identified many of the solutions that could be put in place. Those solutions just cannot be thrown aside because this government does not believe in proper funding for our education system. They need to be looking at it closely to see how they can really reform our education system, and it is very disappointing that we are now here today because they have not properly funded our schools.

This bill has four main components. The first main component is providing support for Indigenous students in boarding schools. This is welcomed, as it is entirely consistent with Labor policies in providing greater support for our Indigenous students. Labor strongly believes in the need to close the gap for Indigenous students, and understands that this is specifically connected with the raising of educational outcomes. Unlike when the other side were in opposition, we are not going to oppose worthy legislation just for the sake of political grandstanding, as they do. We have demonstrated that we are a fair and constructive opposition examining government plans on merit and putting the needs of Australians first and, in this case, putting the needs of Australian students first. We have widely acknowledged, here today, on this side that this debate has been brought on unnecessarily because of the broken promises made by the Liberal-National government but that we will be supporting this measure so as to maintain the funding for education. We recognise how important it is. The initiative also creates the instrument for the minister to make necessary payments prescribed by regulation and allows the payment of $6.8 million in 2014-15 to non-government boarding schools with more than 50 Indigenous boarders or more than 50 per cent of boarders who are Indigenous.

The second main component of this bill is to enable continued funding for independent special schools—another catch-up measure that would not have been needed if they had not broken their election promise on Gonski. Because the government has not finalised the loading for students with disability or provided the additional funding it promised from 2015, this bill has had to be introduced. Essentially, this bill will apply a bandaid to a problem of the government's own making by allowing changes to the funding-transition rules for independent special schools. Under this bill their funding will now be indexed by at least three per cent a year. Approximately 38 independent special schools will no longer face prospects of significant funding cuts under the Act in 2015. Again, this all could have been avoided if they had honoured their election commitments. If we look to some of those election commitments, and we look particularly to one made by the now-education minister, who said before the election, and I will quote him:

If elected to government the coalition will continue the data collection work that has commenced, which will be used to deliver more funding for people with disability through the disability loading in 2015.

That was said on 23 August 2013 by the now-education minister. This pre-election commitment has been totally broken by the government failing to extend the $100 million per year More Support for Students with Disability transition funding in the budget, and with the minister now claiming that additional funding for students with a disability was not promised and that the disability loading would be funded from within the existing funding envelopes. We see yet another broken promise.

The third main component of this bill is to delay the implementation of the school-improvement plans by one year to January 2016. In fact, the school improvement plans were developed by the independent Australian Council for Educational Research. They were supported by the states and had enjoyed bipartisan political support. The school improvement plans are not particularly onerous. They were designed to make sure that the money for resources for the students who need it the most is delivered and that the extra Gonski investment Labor made in our schools actually makes a difference in classrooms. This bill is to facilitate further changes to school improvement plan requirements in 2015 as a consequence of the minister's review of the command and control requirements of the school funding system.

At a school level, the school improvement plans ensure there is accountability for the additional Gonski investment and that reforms to teaching and learning are in fact being implemented. Schools already make improvement plans and track their progress. The vast majority of schools will have to do absolutely nothing more in order to satisfy these requirements. So the government has been caught out yet again, with absolutely no idea when it comes to schools and no idea as to the educational needs of our children to ensure their futures. In fact, in most states and territories and, indeed, in the Catholic system plans that satisfy the requirements of the act are already in place and functioning well.

We need an appropriate level of reporting to make sure that these reforms do what they are supposed to do—help every child in every school to improve their results. However, the changes foreshadowed as a result of the government's command and control review are likely to significantly weaken accountability under the Gonski reforms. That is indeed disappointing. Such changes would require further amendments to the act and/or regulations. A year after the government broke its promise about the Gonski agreements we are here trying to fix its mistakes. It is unfortunate but that is the reality we face here today.

The fourth main component of this bill is to address a number of errors and omissions through some amendments to cater for transitionary provisions. The government talks about the need to ensure certainty and to make sure that transitional recurrent funding can continue, but the changes that this bill seeks to introduce to the act to supposedly deal with errors and omissions would not have been needed if it had simply kept its word and honoured its commitments to the Australian people. Yes, I am repeating that but that is because it really goes to the heart of why we are all here today. They are absolutely playing catch-up when it comes to education and the vital importance of education for our younger people.

The government should be keeping their promise to honour the Gonski agreements and work to improve schools. That is what our communities want. It is what my community is always telling me. It is what parents are saying as well. They have particularly grave concerns when it comes to this government's lack of investment in education throughout all the years of their children's schooling. Lately they are particularly concerned about higher education funding. Many people in rural and regional areas like mine now say that university is not an option for their children because of the proposed deregulation of university fees. It is hard enough for kids from the country to access higher education, but with the deregulation of fees many have told me it will be off their radar as it will not be possible for their kids to get to school.

They are angry and disappointed that that is on the agenda. They are also upset that there are funding cuts as well. That is what we have seen from this government. We have seen cuts to the vital additional funding for the fifth and sixth years of the Gonski reforms. We have seen the $80 billion of cuts, which we refer to a lot, from schools and hospitals over the next decade. It will be absolutely appalling for the services that are required. Let us look at the cuts to future school funding through fixing the indexation rate to the lower rate of the CPI. As we know, the budget papers are predicting the CPI to be at just 2.5 per cent, whereas the current ABS education price index currently is at 5.1 per cent. So we know there will be a cut.

Before the election the government was running around promising that there would be no nasty surprises—you will not see any cuts to education, no cuts to health, no cuts to pensions and no changes. People now feel very betrayed. They feel they have been misled by the government across a whole range of issues. Before the election we did not have any government members telling anyone the truth about what they were in fact proposing. There was no mention of the GP tax, which is devastating for areas like mine, particularly for many elderly people and many families that are struggling. There was no mention of hurting families and pensioners with their proposed petrol tax. There was no mention of any cuts to the age pension as well, which will also be devastating in areas like mine.

When it comes to education, families are very concerned about what the future will hold for their children in accessing all levels of education. In New South Wales we also have the state government cutting education and TAFE funding, making it doubly hard. We are seeing Liberal-National governments at both the state and federal levels making it incredibly difficult for people from rural and regional areas, who do feel those cuts a lot more harshly. They are very concerned and angry that what they have here is a government of broken promises that cannot be trusted. They do compare it to when we were in government and we invested so much in education. We had detailed and complex plans through the Gonski report and flowing from that to make sure that those people who are vulnerable and disadvantaged are able to access decent and fair education systems. We know all reports say that education is the great equaliser and provides great opportunity for people to excel. We know how important that is.

In regional areas like mine we saw firsthand how important that investment was. As I said earlier, there was more than $100 million through the Building the Education Revolution invested in nearly 90 schools. Many of those schools had been neglected for many years so to have that level of investment has been absolutely astounding in terms of the infrastructure improvements. That massive level of investment, combined with our plans through Gonski, meant that those people from disadvantaged backgrounds were going to be able to get access to very good education systems.

As I said, people are devastated that this government essentially misled them by saying that they were on a unity ticket. I recall at many forums during the election campaign the National Party candidate telling people that. I can tell you that people are pretty angry about that. They are angry about the Nationals for a whole range of reasons, including all their broken promises. I think education is one of the top ones up with the GP tax, the petrol tax and the cuts to pensions as well. As I have said many times in this place, you cannot trust the National Party. When it comes to the cuts to education you can certainly see in areas like mine on the north coast of New South Wales that the Nationals cannot be trusted. Their policies and plans are hurting the people of the north coast of New South Wales. They will certainly be punished for that, because people are very much aware of the very cruel and harsh nature of this budget and what the National Party's actions have done to people living in areas like my electorate of Richmond.

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