Karen Andrews (McPherson, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Vocational Education and Skills) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. As this is the first time that I have spoken whilst you have been in the chair since your election as the Deputy Speaker, I'd like to acknowledge that and congratulate you on your elevation to this very important role. I know that you'll do a great job. Well done!

I relish the opportunity to speak about schools. I relish the opportunity to speak about education, because it is one of the most important things that I believe this parliament can debate. It's important when we speak about education to do it in totality. Certainly, funding is very important—a key part of that. But we also need to look at schools and education in their totality. What are schools intended to achieve? How can we create the best possible opportunities for our young people and for our children into the future?

Contrary to what we have just heard, the Turnbull government is delivering record Commonwealth investment in Australian schools. There are no cuts to school funding, and those opposite are well aware of that. But they do continue with their arguments, saying that there are cuts but knowing that there aren't—that there clearly aren't cuts to funding. In today's MPI, I'd actually like to do two things. I'd like to start by talking about the record levels of funding that the Turnbull government is delivering and then I'd like to move on and talk about the importance of making sure that we focus on a good quality education outcome for our children.

So let me say that under the Turnbull government's policies, by 2027 students with the same needs in the same sector will attract the same level of support from the Commonwealth. That's regardless of the state or the territory in which they live and regardless of their background or the choice of the school that their parents make. Under Labor there were actually 27 separate funding agreements. What we have done is address some of the issues that were evident when we looked at those separate funding arrangements that had been put in place by the Labor government.

We have developed a very comprehensive policy. The Quality Schools package has done away with the special treatment that meant funding was determined based on which state a school was in or who ran a school rather than the students who studied in it. The Quality Schools package is going to deliver an extra $25.3 billion in recurrent funding for Australia's schools over the next 10 years. That's from 2018 through to 2027—an extra $25.3 billion. And that's on top of the 2016-17 budget settings.

That brings the total Commonwealth recurrent funding to close to $250 billion over the period from 2018 to 2027. And, for the first time ever, the coalition government is going to deliver real needs based funding. We're going the make sure that it is delivered and that funding will actually grow, from $17.5 billion in 2017 to $31.1 billion in 2027.

Now, it is important always to understand the context of schools funding, and I've said this in a number of the MPIs that have been debated in relation to school funding. States and territories are responsible for the overall quality of school education in their jurisdictions, and states and territories are also the overall major funders of schools. While they provide the majority of funding to public schools, it is the Commonwealth government that provides the majority of funding to the non-government schools. But overall, the majority of the funding for schools comes from state and territory governments. When we look at it at the sector level, current government funding—when you put together both the Commonwealth and the state and territory funding—accounts for 94 per cent of funding for government schools, 73 per cent of funding for Catholic schools and 42 per cent of funding for independent schools. And it's important that as we discuss education in a very holistic and total manner we're aware of how the funding is actually set up between the Commonwealth, the states and the territories and how it is then divided across the various sectors, be that government, Catholic or independent schools.

If we start to break this down into dollar terms for each of the sectors, the government sector will receive a total of $33.65 billion over the period 2018 to 2021. That is over $2 billion extra going into the government sector, and that is growth of 27. 6 per cent, which is significant growth. So over the next decade the government sector will receive a total of $104.5 billion, which means an additional $5.9 billion, which in itself is growth of 79.6 per cent. The Catholic sector will receive a total of $28.44 billion over the period 2018-21. That's over $1 billion extra going into the Catholic sector, and it's growth of about 15 per cent. So over the next decade the Catholic sector will receive a total of almost $81.9 billion, which is just over $3 billion additional and, again, a significant growth—48.8 per cent. The independent sector will receive a total of $21 billion over the period 2018 to 21, which is over $1 billion extra, a growth of 22.8 per cent. They will receive a total of $63.42 billion. That's an additional $3.16 billion, a growth of 66.9 per cent. They are significant increases, and it's clear from that that there are no cuts to school funding.

In the time remaining I'd like to speak about some of the reforms the Turnbull coalition government has implemented for schools, because we understand that achieving better outcomes for our children isn't just about how much funding we provide. It matters, and it matters a lot, how that funding is actually used. We know that at the same time that funding is increasing Australia's performance in national and international testing is declining—or, at the very best, standing still. Now, that's not acceptable to me, and it's not acceptable to those on this side of the House, and I'm sure it's not acceptable broadly across the community. We need to make sure that our students have the opportunity to reach international benchmarks in things such as science and mathematics—areas that are going to be critical for their future job prospects.

And I must say, in terms of developing opportunities for our young people into the future and the careers and the career paths that will be available, science and mathematics are crucial, because, whilst we don't know exactly what the jobs of the future are going to be, we do know that 75 per cent of the jobs of the future are going to require skills in science and maths. So it's very important that we are lifting the standards of our students in science and maths well above what the international benchmarks are so that our students, our children, have the opportunity to be competitive. The message is clear: we need to act now to ensure that our children do have the best possible chance to succeed in a changing world, and that is what the Turnbull government has done.

I indicated earlier something about the Quality Schools, Quality Outcomes program, and there's evidence that the ambitious reform agenda that has been embarked upon is making a difference. It's strengthening teaching, it's strengthening school leadership, it's developing essential knowledge and skills, it's improving student participation and parental engagement and it's building better evidence and transparency.

Some of the key reforms that we have put in place—I'll be very brief, given the time—include the year 1 reading, phonics and literacy assessment, which will assist in early identification and intervention; initiatives to keep our best teachers in the classroom; and reforms to strengthen literacy and STEM skills, such as requiring minimum literacy and numeracy standards for our school leavers and ensuring English or humanities subjects, and math or science subjects, are studied to get an Australian Tertiary Admission Rank. We are committed to developing and implementing a quality outcome for our future here in Australia.

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