Bert Van Manen (Forde, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is a pleasure to rise today to speak on this MPI on education funding. I think we all recognise that education is critically important for the future of our country, and certainly on this side of the House we well recognise that. We have listened to the contribution from the member for McMahon and the member for McEwen, wanting to lecture us on a failure to invest in education when it was the previous, Labor, government—many of whom are still sitting on those opposition benches in this House—that failed Australian schools with an unfair and inconsistent funding model.

Now, some of them I know are a bit newer in this place, so I might give them a bit of a history lesson. The previous, Labor, government's negotiation with education authorities resulted in special deals and indefinite and complex transitions that compromised what was intended to be a fair, consistent and needs based national funding model. In Queensland, Western Australia and the Northern Territory, Labor removed more than $1.2 billion in funding from government schools. Why are the students of these states worth less to Labor than those in the other states? How can Labor say it cares about the future of our children when it has left an epic budget deficit and wants to add more to it? Labor promises $37 billion in spending with no legitimate plan to fund it. Our country is in deep deficit thanks to the previous, Labor, government spending like drunken sailors: months out from an election and Labor has already racked up a $50 billion black hole thanks to unfunded promises.

The students of today are the leaders of tomorrow, and they will not be thanking uncle Bill for a budget deficit that they will be paying off for generations to come. That is a little bit of information that those opposite fail to tell the Australian people, but at some point in the future the bill will need to be paid, and it will be the students being educated today who are going to pay the bill in the future. Labor is bound to continue to make all sorts of promises and repeat mistakes from the past in relation to education policy.

The coalition government has matched and exceeded the former government's funding over four years from 2014 to 2017. It is false and misleading to suggest that this government is not investing in education when we have provided record funding of some $69.5 billion over the forward estimates, including $5 billion in record funding for students with disabilities. From 2014 to 2015 education funding increased by some $4.1 billion, or 27.9 per cent. Under the coalition, funding to government schools has increased by 36.1 per cent and to non-government schools by 23.4 per cent.

As I stated earlier, Labor failed the students of Australia with their poor negotiations and funding complexities with educational authorities when they were last in government. As usual, the reason we get outcomes on this side of the House when we are in government is that we are actually prepared to sit down and talk to people and come up with sensible solutions for the problems we face both in the long term and in the short term. Prior to 2018, this government—provided we are still in government after the next election—will sit down with the states, territories and the non-government school sector to talk about how we can improve student outcomes and what needs to change to ensure that when students leave school they will be well equipped to get a job, undertake vocational education, attend university or other studies. We want schools to be able to plan for the longer term. The government's negotiations will be about the next full funding period from 2018 to 2021. This government is focused on four key areas that will make a real difference to students: teacher quality, school autonomy, engaging parents in education and strengthening the curriculum. These are areas that we know will actually make difference to student outcomes. As usual, it is this government that is providing solutions to these long-term problems.

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