Amanda Rishworth (Kingston, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

This very important motion talks about the importance of giving every child everywhere in Australia a very good education. I believe that we do need to be having a very serious debate in this country about how we improve our schooling system.

This motion acknowledges the important work done by David Gonski, who conducted the first review into school funding and school education in almost 40 years. It calls on the House to support the principles that have emerged from this. If we are going to move forward, we need to make sure that there is a bipartisan approach to this important issue.

We learned from the review conducted by David Gonski that we are falling behind. Indeed, over the past decade, Australian students have fallen from second to seventh in reading and from fifth to 13th overall in maths. Those results are measured by the international PISA exam. We can see we are falling behind and we cannot allow this to happen. We can and we must do a lot better. The Australian government's National Plan for School Improvement sets out the goals for Australian schools to be in the top five in the world in reading, maths and science by 2025. It sets out an ambitious reform agenda to help us reach this target.

It is no surprise that a Labor government is taking action to ensure that every Australian child has access to quality education. I am very passionate about this issue and, indeed, this is one of the issues that drove me into politics. I truly believe that if we can give our young people a good education, what it really does is provide them with a passport for the rest of their lives. It gives them a passport that allows them to go into different places, different areas, and different occupations—a whole range of opportunities that would not be open to them if they did not succeed and get a good education. It is very pleasing to me to be part of a government that understands the power of education to transform the lives of individuals—and also the importance to our national economy of having a world-class education system.

It is important to understand that we need to be competitive around the world. We can no longer just focus on living in Australia and think that we are not competing with the rest of the world. There is a global village out there and our citizens need to be educated and to be able to be the best they can be when they compete not just for jobs here in Australia but, indeed, for jobs right around the world. That is why it is so important that we do address this.

It is not like our government has not done anything up to this point when it comes to education. There have been a significant number of reforms that I have been very proud of. I have often been concerned about the opposition and their negativity towards these reforms. Some of the things that we saw in the Building the Education Revolution program not only supported so many jobs in my electorate but have allowed for absolutely world-class facilities at these schools. I have 63 schools in my electorate and I have not been to one school that has said that their Building the Education Revolution building will not transform the way they are able to deliver education—whether it has been for science labs or language labs, or for new classrooms. That has been what many schools in my electorate have used this money for: new classrooms. Many were using demountable classrooms with no air-conditioning and no ability to have innovative space for teaching. The Building the Education Revolution has been an important improvement to our schools. Indeed, a digital education revolution has allowed for curricula to be brought online and be available for teachers—a resource for a whole range of things to enable students to really engage in the digital future. That has been really important.

But we cannot stop and we need to continually improve. We want our school system to ensure that all Australian children have a real chance to reach their full potential. The quality of education a child receives throughout their lifetime will determine the opportunities and experiences that will become available to them. The National Plan for School Improvement is based on some core principles emerging from the Gonski review. It entails a set of ambitious reforms which will help to make the government's vision for a high-quality, high-equity education system a reality. Critically, the plan aims to introduce a new school funding system based on the recommendations of the review, including a benchmark amount per student which is based on the cost of schools that have already achieved great results. Extra money, or loadings, will also be made available to support school students who need it the most, including students from low-income families, Indigenous students, students with a disability, rural and remote students, students at small schools and students with limited English. This principle is critically important because we have heard so many times that there are students who fall through the cracks and they are often those with a disability, those from low socioeconomic backgrounds, or those that do not have access to the same resources as schoolchildren in more populous areas. It is so important that we do not say that everyone should just try and get on with what they have got. It is important that we recognise that these factors make a difference, and that extra funding is directed there to ensure that, no matter where you live or what your circumstances, you will be able to get a very good education.

This government is very committed to this and I hope that the opposition will be part of this, because not only will it be looking at how we direct funding but it will also be looking at a higher standard for teachers with at least one term of classroom work experience before graduation—looking at the training for teachers going into the profession and an annual performance review for every teacher. What we do know—and this has been said by the Prime Minister many, many times—is that quality teaching is critically important.

When I go to my local schools and see passionate teachers really putting in effort I see better results, more engaged students, better welfare for those students and better learning outcomes. I have seen some teachers working in very difficult circumstances without much support, but the quality of their teaching and innovation really help their students achieve. It is really important that we invest in our teachers, and that is why I am pleased that the government wants to deliver training to ensure that teachers get extra help in managing disruptive behaviours and dealing with bullying, so that every child in the classroom gets a chance to learn in a safe environment.

Another important point of our reforms is more power for principals, like hiring staff and controlling the budget. There is also better MySchool information to make sure that no school falls behind in providing more information for parents, so they can see how their kids are doing. We have heard a lot of negativity from those opposite about MySchool and I think it is their policy to abolish it, but when I speak to parents in my electorate they tell me they find this an incredibly useful tool for looking at schools in their area. MySchool gives them information about schools and it is an important tool about which to ask the principal questions. In terms of transparency and empowering parents, MySchool is a very important tool and I urge the opposition to keep it going if they win government. It would be a bad policy to scrap this tool.

I could keep talking about how important education reform is, but unfortunately my time is limited. This is an important next tranche of reform from this Labor government when it comes to education. It is so important that we pursue this, and I call on the opposition to take a bipartisan approach to education, so that we can ensure that future generations get the best opportunity they can.

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