David Gillespie (Lyne, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise in support of this motion. As you know, the coalition government was at the forefront of the increased funding to all schools across the Australian states and territories. In the time of Menzies in the 1960s the Archbishop of Canberra-Goulburn closed the school because of the requirements to upgrade their toilet blocks and the facilities for the students. As he marched the schoolchildren up the main street, people all of a sudden had a lightbulb moment and thought, 'Gee, if all these non-government schools close, the government schools will be flooded with children.' Hence at the time there was federal coalition government support for Catholic and other non-government schools in the form of science blocks, and it has gone on from then. For decades, state governments have funded and run free public education. From the 1850s and 1860s, when government schools exploded around the then colonies, Australia has had an exemplary record in funding things.

But the coalition government, in the recent so-called funding wars, have really stumped up and increased funding to all levels of school. The most formative period of one's education is that very first part. We have a situation now where there is guaranteed funding for 15 hours of preschool, including support for child care. And we are putting pressure on the states to make sure that the funding results in the children actually attending that preschool and early school preparation work, because if they're not ready for school when they get into kindergarten or their first year at school, they don't thrive as well. We've put enormous amounts of extra money into child care. We've made it much more efficient; the funding goes straight to the day care or the childcare centre.

In the school space, all of the schools in the Lyne electorate have received extra funding. There were no problems in my part of Australia. All the government schools got a better deal out of the federal coalition government, and so did all the non-government schools. But, as the member for Indi pointed out, regarding achievement at the tertiary level, whether in trade skills development or in higher education at universities, regional Australia hasn't done nearly as well. Many of the views she referred to, I thoroughly agree with. The inhibition to achieving a tertiary or a vocational qualification in regional Australia is different. The challenges are different. The tyranny of distance really plays into it, just as much as the low general income, because it's the barrier to travelling away for either apprenticeship training or for a university degree. It's the costs involved; it's not the actual education fees. People can't really aspire if it means relocating to a regional or major metropolitan centre. If your children are relocating to a major metropolitan centre, you are up for about $25,000 when you put together housing, travel and relocation, even for distances as small as 50 or 100 kilometres. It means they don't aspire to it, because it's not in their area. That's why these regional university centres that the minister is rolling out, the next round, are so important.

In my electorate, there are pockets where there is low achievement in the tertiary education space: in the Manning and down into the Upper Hunter regions. We had 42 new apprentices delivered into the marketplace courtesy of our subsidy trial program. In the second round, we had another 30. That's roughly 70 new apprentices in the Lyne electorate alone that are there because of the support that we in the coalition government have given them. These regional university centres are a great initiative, and I'm looking forward to support from the government in any application that comes out of the Manning Valley region, which I've spoken about in this House already. It is a really critical thing because it brings tertiary education into the here and now, into the financially possible space if it's delivered locally in a mixed modality fashion. (Time expired)

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