Michael Sukkar (Deakin, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister to the Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to sum up the debate on the Australian Education Amendment Bill 2017, and I thank all honourable members for their contributions. This is a very important day in the history of Commonwealth school education policy, particularly in relation to the Australian government's funding arrangements. This legislation, though, is not just about the funding model—it is about making a fundamental shift in the way the Commonwealth will fund schools into the future. It is about delivering real policy reform, which the opposition has only talked about but itself never implemented. It is about delivering a new funding model based on the principles of affordability, need, fairness, equity and transparency. It is about delivering what the Turnbull government promised at the election last year in our Quality Schools, Quality Outcomes document, that the Commonwealth's record investment in schools must be tied to evidence based reforms to reverse Australia's sliding education performance. It is about delivering what the Gonski report actually proposed—replacing the messy 27 different funding arrangements, corrupted by special deals, trade-offs and a lack of transparency that marked the previous government model and about which we have heard nothing in this debate from the opposition.

This legislation delivers funding increases in real terms—an extra $18.6 billion extra over the 10 years from 2016-17, a total of $242.3 billion. It is about delivering year-on-year increases in Commonwealth funding—$17.5 billion in 2017 to $30.6 billion in 2027, a 75 per cent increase. This is real funding, not those fantasy figures that have been bandied around by the other side. This bill delivers an average annual increase for government schools of 5.1 per cent per student over the next decade, well above inflation and wages growth. At the same time, funding for the Catholic sector across Australia over the decade will increase by 3½ per cent, and by 4.1 per cent for the independent sector. It is therefore clear that in real terms the vast majority—indeed, the overwhelming majority—of school will see strong growth in funding.

Reflected in the legislation is that we are honouring our 2016 election promise to grow the funding standard by 3.56 per cent from 2018 to 2020, over the next three years. This gives immediate certainty of funding growth above any current measure of wages and inflation growth. From 2021 we will move to a floating indexation rate, and the bill will guarantee that funding keeps up with wages and inflation, with the added safeguard that it will not fall below three per cent. Our funding is sector blind and with its 10-year transition and enduring framework provides unprecedented certainty to schools. It provides for a proper transition period with assistance in place for schools that may need it. We are transitioning all schools to an equitable Commonwealth share of the Gonski based Schooling Resource Standard—80 per cent of that for non-government schools and 20 per cent for government schools, representing a historic high in federal support for all systems, especially for government school systems. This bill will see us move to a truly needs based approach that means that the same student with the same needs attracts the same amount of Commonwealth funding in each state, territory and school sector.

Schools will undertake this transition to a fairer system for all sectors and schools over a decade, unlike in the existing legislation we inherited from the previous government, which still would not achieve equity of treatment after 150 years. The honourable members will know that this bill allows for the use of the Nationally Consistent Collection of Data on School Students with Disability in calculating the students with disability loading. This means that for the first time we will be able to target funding for students who require different levels of assistance to support their access to and participation in learning. As a number of members on both sides of the House have noted, the bill introduces a requirement for states and territories to maintain their real per-student funding levels as a condition of this additional Commonwealth funding. This will prevent cost shifting to the Commonwealth. The Commonwealth does not own or operate a single school, so it should not be the case that state and territory contributions to school funding decline while Commonwealth funding grows.

I particularly want to thank the member for Berowra and other members on this side of the House for reminding those opposite that Mr Gonski has agreed to undertake a review to provide advice on how the extra Commonwealth funding should be invested to improve Australian schools' performance and grow student achievement. The recommendations of this review will inform a new national agreement on school education, which will set out evidence based reforms for national implementation and a revised national performance framework. I therefore want to thank all members who participated in the debate, and I thank the House for the support of this important legislation, which I commend to the House.

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