Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I have to say that this is quite hypocritical of government MPs to bring forward this motion and during the debate cry out, 'Shame!' when it is this government that has cut billions from our higher education sector, including to universities based in my electorate like the Bendigo La Trobe University campus. It was this government that wanted to deregulate universities, seeing $100,000 degrees—and, in some cases, $200,000 degrees—introduced into higher education.

In Bendigo we are incredibly proud of our rural school of health which was funded by the former Labor government. That particular campus offers courses like dentistry, courses like physio and courses which regional students are taking up, and what we have seen from early graduation figures is that when you train country kids in a regional setting they stay in the regions. The suggestion from the government that all regional students need to go to the city for their higher education is a furphy, and it also means they are less likely to move back to the regions to work. The figures we are seeing from La Trobe speak volumes to the credibility of campuses like La Trobe in Bendigo and also James Cook University in Townsville—that when you train regional students in the regional communities they stay and work in the regions. Yet what we have seen from this government is attack after attack on our regional schools and our regional higher education facilities.

The most recent attack to La Trobe happened right before Christmas, when the university received a letter from this government cutting the funding to their clinical placements—meaning that they would have to take funds from other areas of their budget to fund clinical placement. If this government were serious about supporting regional students it would not have cut the funding from regional placements, from students studying at a regional university who need to do placements to be able to graduate and qualify. This is the nature of this government.

Let's now also talk about their funding cuts to primary and secondary schools, which have cost the schools in my electorate $200 million over 10 years. Regional schools would have been the biggest beneficiaries under the Gonski reforms, yet this government have turned their backs on these regional schools by cutting their fifth and sixth year of Gonski funding. Regional schools, small schools, remote schools, schools with a high Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders cohort, schools that have a higher number of students with a disability—these are features of so many of our regional schools, yet this government have cut the critical loading. This government have cut the years that matter in the Gonski reforms. They have cut $3.2 million from every school—$1,000 less per student—in support, which is the equivalent of sacking seven teachers per school.

What has happened because of this government's cuts is that schools in my electorate of Bendigo are saying, 'We have the choice between employing a part-time teacher aide or SSO and watering the oval.' Watering the oval or employing a teacher aide! So what does the school do? Of course, they let the oval go. The kids do not have a place to play while the school has funded the teacher aide because they said, 'It's critical that our students get the support in the prep years and year 1 so that they can read properly.'

These are the decisions that schools are being forced to make because this government has cut funding from their budgets. We know from the results coming out of NAPLAN that our regional schools are doing it tougher. It is no secret in our community that, at the moment, postcode determines your education outcome. That is why, if this government is serious about supporting regional kids, it will put the money back into schools so that all kids, regardless of postcode, will get a quality education and have opportunities.

I was really proud to talk to a couple of dentistry students on the weekend—local students that have finished their senior secondary and are going onto dentistry and pharmacy at La Trobe. They have been through our public school education system, they have a scholarship from Bendigo La Trobe and they are about to start their course. They are examples of what great opportunities we can have in the regions with the right government support and investment.

This government has dropped the ball. It does not understand what it means to fund education and higher education in the bush, and putting forward this motion that we have seen today is nothing more than window dressing. It is them trying to deny the fact that they have cut so much money from our regional schools and our universities.

Debate adjourned.

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