Mark Butler (Port Adelaide, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

We will talk about it later. Returning to the topic at hand, I have had the privilege of attending a number of schools which are going to benefit very shortly from the digital education revolution and to receive a very good number of new computers. In spite of the Deputy Leader of the Opposition’s contribution, I note that those schools are without computers of a functional nature, in some of the most socioeconomically disadvantaged areas of South Australia. To the extent they have computers, many of them do not have USB portals and there simply are not enough computers to deal with even the year 12s, let alone other years. I have been to Ocean View College, to Findon High School and next week I will be attending the Islamic College in my electorate. All of those principals and teachers are terribly grateful for the computer packages they are going to receive through the digital education revolution.

This bill, as I said, constituents the overlap of the two virtuous circles—the education revolution and the working families tax package. We must equip schools, and some of the things I have talked about already tonight—the digital education revolution and the trades training centres—are about equipping schools. It is only part of the equation because families in my electorate, no matter how much they are going to benefit from the sorts of school reforms we have talked about, also need help equipping their students at home so as to continue their education doing homework. The most obvious example of that is the computers that are catered for under this bill. There are many more education related expenses which families incur, which will be covered by these refunds—laptops, home computers and associated costs, a home internet connection, printers and paper, educational software, school textbooks, materials and prescribed trade tools. Those are the sorts of items which will continue to equip school students of the 21st century for the sorts of jobs they will be seeking after they finish school.

It is well known, for those who have read this bill, that the amounts envisaged in the bill are around $375 per child in the pocket for parents of a primary school student and $750 in the pocket for parents of a high school or secondary student. Even assuming that these amounts are fixed for the next 12 years, a typical working family with two children about to start school, over the course of those two children’s schooling, will benefit to the tune of $14,250. That is assuming that those amounts are not increased at some time—we hope they will be—over the next 12 years.

The procedures for obtaining these refunds are straightforward. Working families will obviously be required to keep receipts, but it will be a relatively straightforward matter to make a claim in the 2008-09 tax return. If the parents in question are not required to submit a tax return, then there will be a very simple form available from the Australian Taxation Office which can be completed for the return to be paid to the parents. Where families have shared care arrangements for the children, there will be an arrangement very similar to those applying to the family tax benefit part A to ensure that the refund is shared in the same way between the parents who are subject to the shared care arrangement.

In conclusion, the rollout of this policy demonstrates the benefits of a very early and open disclosure of election policies. The response by the community of Port Adelaide to this policy has been incredibly enthusiastic. After being elected on 24 November 2007, it was one of the most common inquiries we received over the summer period as parents prepared their children for the 2008 school year. The detailed advice that was available from the minister was a credit to her and a credit to her office. As early as December 2007—

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