Greg Hunt (Flinders, Liberal Party, Minister for Industry, Innovation and Science) Share this | Hansard source

I want to thank all of the previous speakers for their contributions and, where it has taken the form of a question, for their questions. Let me begin with the member for Macarthur. The member for Macarthur sadly has left the chamber but asked a sincere question in relation to early childhood education and care. This is an absolute priority. The support that we give to young children from the most vulnerable backgrounds is extremely vital. It is fundamental to the safety, security and development of those children.

On that front, the government is continuing to support the National Quality Framework by providing the states and territories up to $61.1 million over the three years to 30 June 2018. It is an important initiative and one which I am very pleased that we are supporting. Obviously, beyond that, there is the prospect of further and additional support.

In relation to the member for Gilmore, she asked in particular about her own electorate and the support being provided to schools. I am happy to inform her constituents that she has been tremendously successful in being part of a government that is adding to school support within the electorate of Gilmore over the 2014-17 calendar years. The Australian government will be making available an estimated total funding of $320.5 million for all schools in the electorate of Gilmore. This includes an estimated 28 per cent increase in recurrent funding to the electorate of Gilmore.

I just want to say to the those constituents that the member for Gilmore has helped deliver a 28 per cent increase in schools funding. On average, this equates to $323,000 across government schools and $462,000 across non-government schools. The total funding includes an estimated $157.8 million for government schools and $162.6 million for non-government schools, bearing in mind of course that the states bear primary responsibility for funding the state based schools themselves.

Moving on from that, I want to deal in particular with the member for Scullin. The member for Scullin asked a question about schools funding, and I could not be clearer that we see from 2014 through to 2020 funding go from just under 14 to 15 to 16 to 17 to 18 to 19 to $20 billion per annum, a 29.8 per cent increase in real terms—clear, categorical and unequivocal. That is something that we want to see, and I think it is extremely important.

Moving on from that, the member for Bowman asked very important questions about childcare compliance and, in particular before he left the chamber, the issues in relation to what we are doing. I want to commend the Minister for Education. The actions taken by the department and the authorities on his watch include cracking down to ensure the arrest of 16 people; the seizure of over $8 million; more than 3,100 compliance checks; enforcement action taken against 109 services; hard work to shut the loopholes and stopped around $421 million going to rorters. We have increased compliance checks by 500 per cent during our time in office and we have been using all of the appropriately available intelligence to us to zero in on fraudulent operators. This has become a major area of crackdown.

Finally, I want to deal with the issues raised by the member for Mayo. In particular, the member for Mayo asked about the very creative, constructive and, I believe, successful P-TECH pilot program. She asked in particular about schools—I can refer her to South Australia's St Patrick's Technical College. These sites have all been selected in consultation with different government and state based entities, and the advice is very clear. She asked about how the additional schools will be selected. The remaining five sites will be determined in consultation with state and territory governments, non-government school authorities and industry—the same process used to determine the first round—and there will be a phased approach to pilot implementation. Five sites will commence in 2017, with others starting in 2018 and 2019. I will take the remaining points that she raised and deal with them in my next answer.

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