Ewen Jones (Herbert, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Australian Education Bill. This is what it has come to with this government. All that time telling the people of Australia about the education revolution has come down to a nine-page bill and a 71-page amendment. The sum total of consultation or committee for this series of amendments is zero. After six years in government, with education at the core of what our current Prime Minister said was at her heart, this is what the government has given us. This government should hang its head in shame.

Education funding is already very complex, and this makes it ridiculous. I always found in sales meetings that the sales guy who had not made a sale or who had nothing to add always went on with the most detail. These amendments show that this minister has not been across the detail. He has not made the sale. Otherwise, he would be able to come in here and explain these things to us. His legacy will be one of failure.

I have some questions for the minister. Can the minister tell me what additional funds individual schools will get in 2014 as compared to 2013? If so, can he supply a list of my schools and get me those numbers? If not, why not, and how can any school budget for anything next year? What does the National Plan for School Improvement do that the Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority could not do or does not already do? In an era of quality control and best practice, how does this bill address the issue of teacher performance in areas of: (1) classroom management; (2) content delivery; and (3) monitoring and feedback of student progress given that research identifies that the teacher—that is, teacher quality—is a key factor for student success?

Should my son's school principal or the Principal of Mundingburra State School apply for a loan now on the strength of this funding model for the dollars the minister says will come after three more elections? If the government were a bank would it take on the loan on the proviso that the principal and interest will become payable only if the government comes good with its funding? If not, why not?

As an organisation, how much extra funding can the Townsville diocese of Catholic education expect in funding from this government each year from 2014? If a teacher is performing above and beyond what is reasonably expected, how does a principal in this model reward that teacher? If a teacher is not performing anywhere near the standard required, how does a principal in this model counsel that teacher? And, inevitably, how does he get rid of that teacher if they are not suited to the work? Does this bill make that easier?

The minister before raised the issue of computers in schools. I would also like to ask the minister what provision in the budget has come for the replacement of those schools that were bought out? What provision has come for the replacement of all those computers that you put into high schools in Queensland—or have you just passed that on to the state government for them to pick up? What should you do?

We have seen what they have done to the home insulation business. We see what they are doing to the telecommunications industry at present. Please: let's pull back from here, because this is folly. This is untested. This is partisan politics at its worst. Not one state education minister has seen this document. The private, Catholic, Christian and independent schools have not seen this document, and neither have their concerns been answered by this increasingly erratic and desperate minister.

We should be building communities of learning. Instead you are ripping $2.8 billion out of the university sector and you cannot tell me if the money raised by the parents at St Joseph's The Strand's Beach-A-Thon will count against them in this rubbish amendment. The problem we have here is that you are not giving any certainty. Schools are not the place for an experiment. Schools are not the place to experiment with funding models. We must have certainty. Schools must have certainty. Go into my son's school or Mundingburra State School and explain to the teacher's aide that their funding next year or the year after has been cut, because that is what the principal has to do. Of course when you go to a school everyone is telling you what a good job you have done. Bloody hell! You have to look beyond that to what is actually happening out there. This minister should hang his head in shame.

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