Luke Gosling (Solomon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

If the government are committed, the coalition government—they've had quite a few ministers for education. If the latest one wants to come out and say they'll commit to putting the funding back that was previously in the system when we were in government, then great; otherwise, you haven't really got a leg to stand on because sure there's been an increase in funding to education because there are more kids. If you want to commit to the funding that we're putting in public education, just say that publicly, but what we are doing is putting an extra $14 million into schools in the NT alone.

Labor believes that Australian schools should be the best in the world and funded to ensure every Australian child gets the best start they can in life. I'm proud that the future Labor government will deliver the biggest investment in public schools in our history. To ensure that our kids get the education that they need, there will be $14 billion for public schools over the next decade, with $3.3 billion extra flowing in the first three years of school alone. Now, as I said, for the Northern Territory that's $14 million extra.

To give you an idea of what that means for our schools: for Darwin High School that's an extra $1.17 million per year; for Casuarina Senior College that's $930,000 extra per year; and for Palmerston Senior College, with Rosebery Middle School as well, because they work in partnership, that's $1.34 million extra per year. On the weekend, when I was doorknocking down in Palmerston around Bakewell, I was speaking to one of the members of the Bakewell Primary School board. I was very proud to be able to her that $580,000 extra per year will be going to her school. She said, 'That's fantastic news,' because there's a whole range of things that they need in their school, like more assistant teachers. That funding is very much needed to support their kids, particularly kids that need a bit more one-on-one time to help them in their early years.

Labor understands the importance of early childhood education. We know that 90 per cent of a child's brain development occurs in those first years of life, so an investment in early education, primary school and secondary school is something that our country needs. It's something that our competitors are investing in. Unfortunately, as we've heard from Mr Shouty over there, the Liberals see education as a cost. The current Prime Minister has failed to extend preschool funding for four-year-olds beyond the next school year, whereas Labor is not only committing to preschool for four-year-olds into the future; we're also extending that to three-year-old preschool, because, again, we understand the importance of those early years.

Childhood education in those early years is absolutely vital. This is the first time that three-year-old preschool has been announced as a commitment, like it has been by the future Shorten Labor government, in Australian education history. Fifteen hours of subsidised early childhood education for three-year-olds will make sure that our kids, Aussie kids, territory kids, will get the best possible start to lifelong education. It's incredibly important. I commend the member for the bill.

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