Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

As someone who went to a state primary school and a state high school, and who sent his children to a state primary school and a state high school, it always irritated me when I heard spokespeople from the Howard government pit public education against private education, pit teachers against parents and pit states against the federal government. It was all about deflecting blame. It was all about dividing to conquer. We had values ideas that were put into the system. That was supposed to make up for funding deficiencies. So much of what the Howard government did in our education system was about neglect and pitting one local school against another local school or a primary school against a high school.

What was the legacy of the Howard government? Their legacy was a flatlining of children finishing high school and an underfunded education system, whether public or private. I do not think it is any coincidence that the Australian public voted on 24 November last year for a Rudd Labor government and an education revolution. We are happy to listen to the stakeholders in these industries and, unlike the previous government, we are happy to have discussions with parents as well as unions, primary and secondary principals, P&Cs and the states and territories, because this is about cooperation, not about confrontation. This is about uniting and not about dividing.

We have already put significant funding into schools and this particular legislation, the Schools Assistance Bill 2008 and the Education Legislation Amendment Bill 2008, is all about that. The Schools Assistance Bill effectively appropriates $28 billion of Commonwealth funding for non-government schools and bodies from 2009 to 2012, including extra assistance for Indigenous students. It fulfils the election commitment made by the Rudd opposition, and I was happy to campaign on that commitment.

The legislation is about fulfilling our commitment to continue the socioeconomic status—SES—funding model and indexation from the previous government for the non-government education sector for the quadrennium from 2009. That will ensure that non-government schools fulfil requirements of performance, accountability and transparency, as will government schools in terms of the national education agreement, which is being completed through the Council of Australian Governments. The legislation before us today also establishes an Indigenous funding guarantee and ensures that those schools with high proportions of Indigenous students will receive assistance to a maximum level of recurrent funding. It will also mainstream Indigenous-specific education programs.

The Education Legislation Amendment Bill also provides significant assistance in terms of education funding which will go towards reducing the appalling gap in educational attainment between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. Specifically, there are some technical amendments to the legislation but it will continue, in the appropriation for 2009 through to 2012, a number of targeted programs and projects under the Indigenous Education (Targeted Assistance) Act 2000. It will provide funding for supplementary assistance to preschools and vocational education and training providers who have Indigenous students in transition from 1 January 2009 under legislation which becomes operative with the early childhood and vocational education and training specific purpose payments and the national partnerships.

The Indigenous people in my area will appreciate that. I have met with many of them to discuss these types of programs and projects. These will assist to reduce the disadvantage that Indigenous people in my electorate of Blair in south-east Queensland have suffered for a long time. The bills also provide $778.5 million over four years to fund strategic projects to enhance educational outcomes in relation to Indigenous people and in relation to preschools and VET as well.

The education revolution that we talk of will make a significant difference to high schools and primary schools in my area. The $1.2 billion put aside for the digital education revolution will make a big difference in terms of computer literacy and educational attainment of young people in my electorate. I have spoken to many school principals—both private and public education providers—and they are enthusiastic about what this will mean for their schools. They have told me that they will be making application for funding.

The $2.5 billion that we have set aside for the trade training centres and secondary schools is also being realised in my electorate. St Edmunds Boys College, a Catholic high school in the Edmund Rice tradition, is the lead school that has made an application, along with Ipswich Grammar School and Ipswich Girls’ Grammar School, for funding for a trade training centre. And St Eddies, as it is commonly and colloquially known, is probably the lead school in my electorate when it comes to manual arts, particularly the wet trades, and CAD education as well. It really is a tremendous school, and it is great to be there on speech night to see the young men of St Eddies going through and graduating in these particular trades which are so important for the local area. St Eddies has been successful in its grant application, and the Ipswich trade training centre will be established with just under $3 million allocated to it by the Rudd Labor government. I warmly welcome this money and I congratulate the principal, Brendan Lawler, and Wayne Sessarago, who has been so active on behalf of the school in achieving this funding.

But it is important that we do not sit on our laurels when it comes to education. The national education agreement will see more funding delivered to all schools across the country, including in my electorate of Blair—in Ipswich, the Lockyer Valley and the old Boonah shire. I am pleased that the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Education announced on 27 August 2008 at the National Press Club that the changes under that agreement will raise the quality of teaching in our schools, improve results in disadvantaged school communities, improve the basics—literacy and numeracy—and help all schools improve and direct new resources where they are most needed. In my electorate, it is the public school system which has been so underfunded and is so disadvantaged. I welcome the campaign of the Queensland Teachers Union and the Australian Education Union, who have fought so hard for so long to assist and seek further funding for public education in Queensland in particular. Ipswich is the fastest-growing area in South-East Queensland and we have a great deal of pressure put upon our local infrastructure and also our schools. Just south of where I live, at Flinders View in Ipswich, 120,000 people will be living in the Ripley Valley in the next 20 years. And just down the road, in the electorate of Oxley, Springfield has already got about 18,000 people in it, and it will have similar numbers to the Ripley Valley. The pressure on infrastructure and health and education is acute, so putting more money into public education as well as into private education is absolutely vital in the circumstances.

It is very important that we create an education revolution. We are determined to make our schools palaces of education. It is crucial that we have a population that is the most highly educated and best skilled in the world because education empowers, it gives people opportunity, it builds up individuals, it creates a more just and fair society. It is crucial that our human capital can capitalise on its latent skills and talent. Education should not be about left and right, as the member for Kalgoorlie was preaching a few minutes ago. It is not about the arguments of the past, it is not about public versus private, it is not about vilifying what people did decades ago in terms of their political involvement. It is about economic growth and it is about social justice. It is about making our country stronger economically, but fairer socially. Children who receive the best education are less likely to commit criminal activities. They are less likely to go into cycles of disadvantage. Poor educational levels go hand in glove with intergenerational poverty and disengagement from society and civic responsibility.

Our educational outcomes are crucial for our productivity and our future growth at the bottom of Asia. It is vital that our people are skilled and educated to the best of their respective abilities. Sadly, under the coalition government, education was neglected. We have, as their legacy, 6.5 million Australians with no post-school qualifications. We has a real decline in literacy levels until 2006, according to the OECD Program for International Student Assessment, and a terrible tale in underperformance, which is linked to disadvantage. Our retention rates to year 12—or senior, as we say in Queensland—had flatlined to 75 per cent according to the ABS 2007 report Schools Australia statistics. The 2006 national reading, writing and numeracy benchmarks results showed that in year 7 less than half met the 2006 benchmark; literacy achievement results for Indigenous boys and those students in remote areas were dreadful. It is important that there is a whole-of-government approach in this regard. It is important that we build on the digital education revolution of $1.2 billion and what I have described locally as the trade training centre revolution of $2.5 million of programs, and that we also deliver on education tax refunds for people to ensure their children have vital computer and educational items so they do not fall behind.

This is a program of $4.4 billion, our education tax refund. At my many mobile offices, people in my area have commended the government in that regard. The Deputy Prime Minister, in her second reading speech on the Schools Assistance Bill on 24 September 2008, said:

If this country is to succeed in the 21st century we need a schooling system which delivers excellence and equity for every child in Australia.

What a wonderful thought: excellence and equity for every child in Australia.

The bills before this House deliver $42 billion for schools. They deliver $28 billion to non-government schools in 2009-2012. Along with these bills, we are bringing in a national curriculum. That is so important for my area, because in my electorate I have the RAAF base at Amberley, where thousands of people work. It is becoming a super base, with the Super Hornets going there as we phase out the F111. That base is like a construction site. I did my ADF parliamentary program there and met with many people. I attended a fantastic air show at Amberley that 100,000 people visited, where I talked to many people. What the families tell me is that their kids are so disadvantaged when they move from one state to another. So a national curriculum is so important. Eighty thousand children each year move from state to state and thousands of them live in my electorate. A national curriculum is absolutely crucial. I have spoken to great principals like Peter Doyle, the principal of Brassall State Primary School, and Jan Klotz, the principal of Bundamba State Secondary College, which is my old high school. They have talked to me about why a national curriculum is important, because they see the disadvantage the children have. We are the government that has the wit and the will to do this. A national curriculum was, in fact, promised so often by the coalition. But when we came to power what did we find? No national curriculum. It is important that we have a national curriculum. These bills we are debating today go hand in glove with a national curriculum.

In 2008-09 the Australian government budget figures show that a record estimated $9 billion will be going to Australian schools. This is an increase of $391 million, or 4.5 per cent, over 2007-08. From the federal government $2.9 billion will go to state schools and students. This is an estimated increase of $151 million, or 5.5 per cent, over 2007-08. The federal government will also put in $6.1 billion to non-government schools and students. That is an increase of $224 million, or 3.7 per cent, over 2007-08.

The private schools in my area are schools of excellence. I have mentioned St Edmunds. The two grammar schools are terrific schools. They have produced some wonderful people. Some have gone all the way to being politicians and chief justices of the High Court of Australia. But these schools also provide a great deal of assistance to Indigenous and disadvantaged students. Giving this money to private schools in my area will help students in that regard. A lot of parents battle to send their kids to private schools. They do it because they believe in a religious education or they believe in a private education or they just want to give their kids what they think is the best start in life. I applaud the parents in my area who really aspire for greatness for their children, because it is so vital that we give them the best chance.

Neither of my parents had the advantage of going to high school, nor my grandparents on either side before them. I am the first person in the direct line of my family ever to go to high school. It was a Labor government that allowed me to go to university. The Labor Whitlam government allowed me to go and study law, political science and economics at the University of Queensland. It has been Labor governments which have assisted those battling families in my area for so long. It is Labor governments which make a difference in the life of communities like Ipswich, the Lockyer Valley and Boonah, because we believe in social justice, equity and giving people a chance in life.

I think the state of some of our public schools in Queensland is a disgrace—and it is a disgrace that we have inherited from the Howard government. We are committed to improving the educational outcomes in Queensland from early childhood education through to our Education Investment Fund, which will make such a difference to people in my electorate. I warmly commend the bills to the House. They have my full support, and I am sure I speak on behalf of all of my electors in saying that these bills will help both public and private education to the betterment of all the communities in Blair.

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