Susan Templeman (Macquarie, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Some people make 15 minutes feel like an eternity. But I know it is not going to be enough for me to explain why I support the amendments put forward by the member for Sydney, Tanya Plibersek, and oppose the Australian Education Amendment Bill that this government has put forward.

I vividly remember the day, in August 2013, only a month before election day, when the then leader of the opposition, the member for Warringah, declared a unity ticket on school funding. The promise was 'not a dollar different—we're on a unity ticket'. I was the Labor candidate for Macquarie at that time, but I had only recently stepped down as president of Winmalee High P&C. So a bit of me was incredibly relieved to hear that at last the politics were going to be taken out of education funding. But of course, they should never have been trusted. They should never have been trusted to treat school students, teachers and parents with respect.

There are 51 public schools in my electorate of Macquarie. Every one of those 51 public schools in the Hawkesbury and Blue Mountains will lose money under the government's changes to the way it funds students. These changes are part of the budget that the Prime Minister claims loudly and proudly is fair. How can it be fair, when every public school in my electorate will be worse off under their formula? How can it be fair that the nine Catholic schools in my electorate have their funding agreement tossed away? Schools like St Monica's, St Matthew's, Bede Polding, Chisholm, St Finbar's, St Thomas Aquinas, St Columba's, our Lady of the Nativity and St Canice's. Greg Whitby, the executive director of Catholic Education in the Diocese of Parramatta, has written to me of his disappointment that Catholic Education leaders were not even consulted prior to the radical change to the funding levels. He fears that these low-fee Catholic schools in my area will be impacted.

I have heard repeated claims by the Prime Minister, the Treasurer and every MP on the other side who has bothered to speak so far that the funding is fair. Just saying it is fair does not make it so. It is the facts that determine whether it is fair or not. So let us look at the federal government's own briefing paper for journalist, for a start. It reveals $22.3 billion of savings over 10 years. In other words, in case those opposite do not understand that language, that is money your government is saving by reducing the amount of money that it had planned to go to schools.

If you do not want to trust the government's own briefing paper, what does the New South Wales Minister for Education say? Well, he talks about having had a deal with the Commonwealth, that he expected that deal to be honoured and that the result of these changes was that there were millions and millions less than was expected to go into schools in New South Wales over two years. And the New South Wales Department of Education wrote to every school principal warning them not the trust the Commonwealth department's calculator—the same calculator they so gleefully refer to when trying to prove their claim that funding has increased. Nope: the data is dodgy. And how is it fair that the Northern Territory, with the greatest funding gap to bridge, gets the worst deal, which will not even keep pace with inflation?

By any independent measure, the facts show how out of touch this Prime Minister and this government are. While they blithely rip away $22 billion of funds from students and teachers across every school sector, they throw $65 billion at big business in the form of a tax cut and give millionaires a tax cut. They say it is fair, but just saying it does not make it so. The governments approach is not needs based. It is not sector blind. They have dressed up a massive funding cut with words to trick parents and teachers into thinking they care.

Let's keep in mind that schools in New South Wales have signed up with the Commonwealth to a six-year funding program. The state agreed to increase funding alongside federal funding, and of course that is not the case under this new plan, in which the expectations on states have changed and they no longer need to commit to helping their schools reach a nationally consistent level of funding. That is a massive flaw in the government's plan, and it will entrench inequality between school systems. And we are lumbered with an arbitrary formula, which does not come out of any Gonski panel findings, that the federal government will fund 20 per cent of public education and 80 per cent of private. That is the opposite of sector blind; that is sector specific.

Under Labor, every school in New South Wales would have reached a fair level of funding—95 per cent of the Schooling Resource Standard—by 2019. That is every school in New South Wales, not just independent schools but Catholic schools and public schools—all of them. And on the day that we celebrate public education—although neither the Prime Minister nor the education minister were inclined to be with us this morning, with the Australian Education Union, the New South Wales Teachers Federation and parents and teachers from all over the country—let's talk some specifics in my electorate to show just how much those opposite care, particularly about public education.

The four public high schools in the Hawkesbury will, between them, have $2.5 million less over the next two years. Richmond High School will be $151,000 worse off over the next two years. Windsor High School, with its special needs unit, will miss out on $659,000 of funding. Colo High School will be $597,000 worse off, and Hawkesbury High will get $487,000 less than had been agreed to. Public primary schools are also in the firing line, with hundreds of thousands of dollars missing in action from their funds. Over the next two years Hobartville will miss out on $443,000. This is a school that caters for a large cohort of students with special needs, as does Windsor Park, which will miss out on $338,000 in 2018-19. Windsor South, a school achieving great results with the additional funding it has had over the last 3½ years, will be down by nearly $430,000 over the next two years compared with their agreement. And Bligh Park now finds itself with $423,000 less over the next two years. Oakville Public School drops by $350,000.

It is not just these larger schools and these bigger numbers that are a betrayal of public education by the federal government. The smaller schools will also really feel the pain of the funding cuts they suffer. So, even though Cattai, with its around 60 students, will be only $36,000 worse off, and Colo Heights and its 50 students $78,000 worse off, and Kurrajong East and its 65 students $58,000 worse off, and Macdonald Valley, with fewer than 10 students, $15,279 worse off, those amounts will hurt. Being starved of those additional funds will have a profound impact on those schools' ability to support and extend their students in the way they would like to and in the way they deserve.

And let's think about what 'fair on every level', according to the other side, looks like for the rest of the Hawkesbury Schools. Comleroy Road, a school that earlier this year celebrated Harmony Day with songs from around the world, loses $84,000, and Ebenezer loses $91,000. This is a school near a church that the Prime Minister's family built. It is the oldest surviving church in Australia. Now he is happy to rip $91,000 not just out of that school but out of that community. They have their annual school art show and fair coming up and, I can tell you, they will not be able to replace $91,000 through those efforts. Freemans Reach will lose $200,000. Glossodia will lose $224,000. Grose View will lose $171,000—a lot of trivia nights to make that up. Kurmond will lose $130,000. Kurrajong North will lose $58,000. Kurrajong Public will lose $139,000. Maraylya will lose $62,000—a school with no school hall, where assemblies are held outside. Their job fundraising for a hall just got a whole lot harder. Pitt Town will lose $189,000. Richmond North will lose $180,000. They are using their current funding to see that every student learns computer coding, so they are seeing real benefit from the early funding, but they are going to miss out over the next two years. Richmond will lose $261,000. Wilberforce will lose $236,000. Windsor Public School will lose $222,000 over the next two years. If you could not keep up, that is $7 million in all over the next two years from Hawkesbury schools. I think what really gets me about the government using schools as a place to save money—$22.3 billion over the next ten years and $12 million in my electorate alone over the next two years—is that this is money that would go to pay teachers, support staff, speech therapists and counsellors. In areas like mine, where there are small, sometimes quite isolated locations, when you take money out of a school you take it out of the community.

I turn to the Blue Mountains, which is an area that has a higher concentration of teachers living in it than any other part of the country. Those teachers, who teach all over my electorate and on the plains of Western Sydney in all systems, will not be fooled by the deception of the Prime Minister into believing that this funding is fair. They can do the maths. Blaxland High School takes the biggest hit and will be worse off to the tune of $577,000 over the next two years. I spent time at Blaxland last week with the SRC and some of the Aboriginal students in their new garden space. This is a school that deserves additional funding. For Winmalee High School, where my son was educated, it is nearly half a million dollars less than they were due to receive for 2018 and 2019. Katoomba High School is $488,000 worse off and Springwood High School $406,000. These last two schools, like many others, are housed in buildings that could really do with a 21st century update. But if you take money out of teachers and resources, P&Cs are going to spend their scant funds trying to bridge that gap.

This supposedly fair funding is horrible for the public schools up and down the mountains, from the small school at Mount Victoria, where a shortfall of $60,000 will big a big hit, through to Lapstone primary school, which is hardly rolling in it—they are desperate for a new library, which the NSW government does not seem interested in providing. They will be $144,000 worse off over the next two years. From the top of the mountains to the bottom—Blackheath will lose $202,000. Megalong Public School is a tiny school where $6,800 missing from funding is going to have an impact. Katoomba North will lose $177,000. Katoomba Public will lose $182,000. Leura will lose $165,000. Wentworth Falls will lose $229,000. Lawson will lose $189,000. Hazelbrook will lose $290,000. Faulconbridge will lose $206,000. Ellison Public School will lose $214,000. Winmalee will lose $247,000. Springwood—where my niece and nephew attend— will lose $274,000. Warrimoo will lose $119,000. Blaxland Public will lose $106,000. Blaxland East will lose $237,000. Mount Riverview Public School—a really self-reliant school, which has not seen a lot of early money—will miss out on $154,000. And Glenbrook will lose $167,000—that is money they will not receive but should have received in 2018 and 2019. On the Blue Mountains side of my electorate, that is $5 million over the next two years alone. Across all of New South Wales schools we are losing $6.9 billion over the next decade. How on earth can that be fair?

Let us address the issue that somehow the funding in this bill is an increase in money. It is an increase if you remember the $30 billion cut in the 2014 budget—the worst ever cuts to education funding. That is the base those opposite are using to claim that what we are seeing now is a funding improvement. So it is not a $30 billion cut; it is a $22.3 billion cut. That means it is a $7.7 billion improvement. So if we do the maths that way, sure, it is an improvement. But we cannot get away from the fact that this is still a $22.3 billion cut—the second-biggest cut to education funding in our history. I cannot support it. Compared to the agreements the states and different systems have signed up to—what had been committed to by Commonwealth and state governments and by every system within the education sector—it is a cut. I cannot support it.

This is the other myth being created: that there were unnecessary deals done in different states. The reality is that there are three education systems in every state and territory, all of which were at different starting points in their funding. To even out the playing field—to make sure every single child received a basic level of funding and then to add loadings to compensate for special needs and disadvantage—was never going to lend itself to a one-size-fits-all model. Our model was fair. It was sector blind. It took into account the needs of each child. This bill does not, and I cannot support it.

Labor invests in education because we believe there is nothing better for our society or our economy than well-educated, well-trained Australians in good, well-paid jobs. Everyone should have access to that education no matter their post code and no matter their family's circumstances. This is not just about parents and their children, teachers and their students or principals and their teachers; it is about every small business that wants to hire a local kid when they leave school or even while they are still at school. It is about every household that want to see themselves living next door to people who are educated and employed. It is about every member of our society being given a fair chance to learn to read, to learn to write and to learn to learn so that they can be an ongoing contributing member of our communities. One a Prime Minister who is completely disconnected from reality would describe $22 billion of cuts to schools as fair. It is not fair, and I cannot support it.

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