Ms Julie Bishop (Curtin, Liberal Party, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Women's Issues) Share this | Hansard source

First, the question is based on a false premise. The Reading Assistance Voucher program was very successful. The member might be referring to the first year that we conducted a pilot. That relied upon the cooperation of the state and territory governments to provide to the Australian government the details of the parents who would be eligible for that voucher because their students, who were then in year 3, had not met the minimum standards for literacy in that year. The states that did cooperate and provide the information so that parents were given timely notice of the offer of the voucher had a significant take-up rate. The feedback that we have had from the evaluation was that it was highly successful in those states. There were a couple of states which did not cooperate with the federal government because they did not inform the parents in a timely way or at all and in those states there was a lower take-up because the parents had not been informed of their eligibility. The Australian government offered to roll the pilot over to enable those parents in those states to take up the offer and there has been a considerable degree of take-up.

The pilot, which was two years ago, was evaluated by Erebus International and we received very positive feedback, a very positive evaluation and so then in the 2006 budget we announced the Reading Assistance Voucher program, which was again for year 3. There has been significant take-up—I believe 13,000 people have registered for the voucher scheme that is in existence for 2006. Based on the success, the interest and the evaluation of the previous programs, we have considered the steps that the Australian government can take.

Next year, in May of 2008, there will be the first national assessment of literacy and numeracy standards for years 3, 5, 7 and 9 to be conducted in Australia. We anticipate that, as a result of these tests, there will be a number of students identified in years 3, 5, 7 and 9 who do not meet the minimum standards in literacy and numeracy. We are not prepared to stand by and let those students who do not meet minimum standards suffer as a result of not being able to access appropriate support in literacy and numeracy. Therefore, we announced a national tuition scheme whereby we will provide a tuition voucher of $700 to those parents whose children have failed to meet the minimum standards in the national tests in literacy and numeracy.

The interest in this voucher scheme is very high. There are many people who are concerned—and schools are also concerned—about, if their children do not meet the national tests, what support will be in place for them. So it is a safety net, if you like, to ensure that students who do not meet these minimum standards are provided with the opportunity to improve their skills. And, as the federal education minister, I cannot stand by and let students who essentially fail the national test not receive support to give them the opportunity to improve their ability in literacy and numeracy. The $700 voucher will be provided to those parents. We will be seeking the cooperation of the state and territory governments to provide us with the information of who is eligible. And given the success of the Reading Assistance Voucher program that commenced this year and will be delivered during the 2007 year, we believe there will be considerable interest and uptake for the vouchers as a result of the 2008 national literacy and numeracy tests.

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