Steve Georganas (Adelaide, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak in support of this motion. I do so because of the history of the last 20-odd years, which has seen the actual defunding of schools. It has taken two lots of Labor governments—the Gillard government and this particular government—to increase the funding for public schools. We saw a system under the Howard government that fully funded private schools but totally ignored public schools, and schools in my electorate suffered. They suffered immensely—schools like Woodville Gardens School; Cowandilla Primary School, my own junior primary school that I attended; Sturt Street Community School; Gilles Street Primary School; Challa Gardens Primary School; Parkside Primary School; Plympton Primary School; Torrensville Primary School; and Blair Athol North Birth-Year 6 School. These are some of the schools that actually needed funding. When I would visit these schools, I would see the shortfalls.

What we have done since being in government is ensure that schools are appropriately funded. This particular government has not only seen the funding of schools and the signing of agreements to ensure that all this will take place—and it will take time, of course—but also ensured that there are goals attached to the funding—in other words, retention rates and teachers being able to ensure that children are completing what's required to go on to the next grade.

This is all about creating opportunities where there otherwise might not be any. We know that, if you want to make change in someone's life, all the research points towards education. If you give someone the decency of a good education, you turn their lives around. One way of perhaps changing the generational cycle of poverty is by giving someone education, by changing the entire community by giving a community education and by changing the whole nation and the direction it's taking by giving them an equal opportunity to education. That is so important. As members of parliament, we have responsibilities for health and for the security of the nation, but education is right up there and should be up there, because it changes the nation, it changes people's lives and it turns around people's lives.

We also have some very good educators, teachers who are undervalued, teachers who give their all, where they try to create the opportunity that might otherwise not exist. I'm sure if I asked each and every one in this place a question about how a teacher has changed their life, they would all have a story about a particular teacher. In my case, I had two great teachers. I may not be standing here today if it weren't for them. One was Rod Sawford, who was the federal Labor member for Port Adelaide. He was my primary school teacher, and I stayed in touch with him for many years. The other one was John Trainer, who became speaker in the state parliament after being a schoolteacher and someone that actually helped me in my political career. So teachers have a special role as well, and we need to support them.

This is why this Better and Fairer Schools Agreement matters so deeply. It's the most significant new investment in public education ever made by an Australian government—$16.5 billion over the next decade and a further $50 billion in the decade after that. That's a commitment that is putting money where it's required. Those schools that I mentioned in my electorate desperately need that money to be able to educate those kids and turn their lives around and do all that they can for them. But this agreement is not simply about money, as I said. It comes with clear targets for attendance, for literacy, for numeracy and for students finishing high school. That completion rate is so important. It comes with practical, evidence based reforms to help achieve those goals. That includes phonics and numeracy checks to identify children who need early support. It's about identifying the kids that are falling behind or need that support early on and ensuring that they get that support that's required to keep them right through to completion dates. It also includes small-group tutoring to help students to catch up and keep up, and it includes reforms that recognise one critical truth—student success depends on teacher wellbeing. We need to respect teachers, and we need to ensure that teachers have the resources that they require. (Time expired)

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