Ken Wyatt (Hasluck, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today to support the motion put forward by the member for Sturt. I would suggest that the House acknowledges the importance of all education sectors in the provision of education for children regardless of whether they are in the government or non-govern­ment sector. If we as a nation want to capitalise on and improve the pathways for society and our quality of life then education is a significant element in achieving that. I also want to say that parents choose schools for educational, religious and socioeconomic reasons, and for those choices we should not diminish them but rather allow them that opportunity. Their decision to pay for an element of education should never be diminished by the fact that this Australian government has a responsibility to all.

The funding, whilst guaranteed, does not include the CPI indexing or future arrangements beyond 2013 and 2014. In my electorate of Hasluck, non-government schools such as La Salle College, Lumen Christi College, Mary's Mount Primary School, Matthew Gibney Catholic Primary School, Mazenod College, Sacred Heart Primary School and St Brigid's College all stand to be unfairly prejudiced by the Gillard Labor government. The coalition of course supports a funding model that encourages private investment in non-governments schools and allows them to receive adequate support in real terms from government. Disappointingly, Labor has made no such commitment beyond 2013 when the current funding model is due to expire. For example, La Salle College in Middle Swan, which has a fantastic sporting and Indigenous student program, stands to lose more than $547,000 under Labor's plans. Then there is Mazenod College in Lesmurdie, which faces the loss of over $864,000. And $230,000 would disappear from Mary's Mount Primary School, while St Brigid's College will have more than $1 million slashed from its budget if the Gillard government gets its way.

Recently, I ran the Hasluck Leadership Awards, a non-partisan search for young leaders within our secondary public and private schooling systems. One of the two finalists came from St Brigid's College. Her family are not 'elite' as the Greens and Labor's left would describe them.

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