Cameron Caldwell (Fadden, Liberal National Party) Share this | Hansard source

There's nothing more that I enjoy speaking about in this place than education. I say that because we think in this place often of the future of our nation and of what that looks like. I also think of education through the prism of being the son of a schoolteacher. My mother, Therese, gave her entire career to teaching—a vocation that she personally took very seriously and one that she applied herself to. She specialised in the special education of those children who needed that little bit more effort. I know that she is representative of the teaching cohort that we are so very blessed to have in that profession across our country.

But this Labor government continues to put up motions like this one today so that they can self-congratulate for nothing more than a photo opportunity for the minister, a big dollar headline and—bingo!—problem solved. The reality is this. They keep using the words 'better' and 'fairer', but the truth is that the outcomes are not living up to that. Their Better and Fairer Schools Agreement is a 'record investment' but by its own evidentiary fact is an admission that the system wasn't being properly funded by this government for years beforehand.

It's this that provides me with the greatest deal of concern about the future. The Labor government, which prides itself on being some sort of righteous custodians of the education system, quite frankly can't manage money, and that puts frontline education services at risk. What also happens when you can't manage the federal budget is the pressure that our schools are feeling. When you talk to our school principals, teachers and administrators, they say that students are coming to school feeling the pressures of social and economic hardship. If this government was serious about making the education system better and fairer, it would do more for families in order to provide food on the breakfast table, lunch in lunchboxes and dinner served at night. Instead, we've got kids turning up for school without food and without shoes, and that is not an equitable outcome or what our children deserve in this country.

I think about some of the schools in my electorate, and I visit many of them. One of the things that they're doing, for example, is the initiative that Principal Landon Dare has introduced at Arundel State School, which is the Mental Wealth Day, because they recognise that some of the greatest pressures on our students are no longer just in the classroom. That is an initiative that is extremely well supported by the community, who have really bought into it. Our schools continue to bear these social challenges and these government failures. Now on the horizon, I'm hearing from schools, is their uncertainty around what the Thriving Kids initiative will look like when it's rolled out in order to try and offload some of the NDIS burden that this government has created for itself. That is a big factor of uncertainty for our schools, parents and students. But, as always, our teachers will do what they do best and press on hard in the classroom.

In closing, I want to give a couple of quick shout-outs, because at the end of last year we had a couple of departures from local schools including that of Steve Josey from Labrador State School, who's moved down to Broadbeach. He is sorely missed by our community, and it was wonderful that he was able to attend the grade 6 graduation last year with a cohort that he'd seen through for many years. Also, my best wishes to Murray Gleadhill, who, up until last year, was the principal at Coombabah State School. He encountered some health issues, but he was able to attend the Coombabah State School grade 6 graduation. That shows the intent of these two men to give their all to those schools and their genuine engagement in what's best for the school groups. I wish both of them well in the next part of their journeys.

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