Ms Julie Bishop (Curtin, Liberal Party, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Women's Issues) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

The purpose of the bill is to amend the Schools Assistance (Learning Together—Achievement Through Choice and Opportunity) Act 2004, which provides funding to states and territories for government schools and funding for non-government schools for the 2005-08 funding quadrennium.

The Australian government will provide a record estimated $33 billion in funding for Australian schools over the four years from 2005 to 2008. This is the largest ever commitment by an Australian government to schooling in Australia. Funding to Australian schools has increased by close to 160 per cent, from $3.5 billion in 1996 to $9.3 billion in 2006-07.

While the Australian government provides record funding, state and territory governments are failing to adequately support schools which they own and manage. For example, in 2006-07 the Australian government increased its funding to state government schools by an average of 11 per cent while at the same time state Labor governments increased their funding by only 4.9 per cent. Had they matched our increased rate of funding there would be an extra $1.4 billion for Australian state government schools. This demonstrates a worrying trend of chronic neglect of state government schools by state and territory Labor governments. The additional funding being provided in this bill demonstrates the Howard government’s ongoing commitment to ensuring that students, wherever they live, receive a high-quality education in a high-quality school from a high-quality teacher.

The bill provides increased funding to the extremely successful $1 billion Investing in Our Schools program. There has been an overwhelming response from school communities around Australia for funding under this program introduced by the Howard government. Through the first three rounds of the program more than 18,000 applications for funding have been received. That is, on average, close to three applications for funding submitted per state government school.

The program is popular as it provides schools with an opportunity to tell the Australian government directly about the educational items and the infrastructure projects that are important to their school communities and that are not being funded by the state governments. So far the Australian government has provided more than $650 million for 15,000 vital projects in 6,100 state government schools; $210 million has been provided for 2,031 projects in 1,603 non-government schools. To put this funding in perspective, almost 90 per cent of state government schools across Australia have received funding through the Howard government’s Investing in Our Schools program.

Due to the overwhelming demand by schools, the Prime Minister recently announced additional funding for the program. This bill will provide an additional $181 million to invest in Australian schools through this program. The additional funding will provide an extra $127 million for state government schools and an extra $54 million for non-government schools. When this fourth round is complete, total funding provided to Australian schools under the program will be almost $1.2 billion.

The additional IOSP funding will be targeted towards schools that have received little or no funding to date under the program. For government schools, funding will be targeted to those schools which have received less than $100,000. It will allow these schools to apply for projects which will take their total approved grants from all rounds of the program up to a maximum of $100,000. For non-government schools, the additional funds are for grants of up to $75,000 and these will be targeted to schools that have received little or no funding under the program to date.

I am told over and over again by teachers and principals that this program is delivering on a range of often overlooked but still important educational items and infrastructure projects that never seem to make it onto the priority list of state and territory education bureaucracies. Parents tell me that this program has now provided funding for things like classroom improvements, shade structures, play equipment, library resources, computer equipment, air conditioning and heating—some of the most fundamental items that a school would need.

In addition to this program, funding is provided to state government and non-government schools through the capital grants program to improve school infrastructure. Under the capital grants program an estimated $1.7 billion is also being provided by the Howard government over 2005-08 to assist with the building, maintenance and updating of schools throughout Australia. The act currently provides an estimated $1.2 billion in capital grant funding for state and territory government schools and an estimated $489 million for Catholic and independent schools.

The bill will appropriate $11.7 million for capital funding for non-government schools for 2008 to maintain the existing funding level. Without this amendment capital funding for non-government schools for 2008 will decrease.

The final measure in this bill is to provide $9.445 million for the national projects element of the Literacy, Numeracy and Special Learning Needs Program for 2008. This is to ensure continued funding to the end of the quadrennium. This program will support strategic national research projects and initiatives aimed at improving the learning outcomes of educationally disadvantaged students. Projects funded include the Literacy and Numeracy in the Middle Years of Schooling initiative; the annual National Literacy and Numeracy Week, which has activities across Australia, including national school and individual awards for improving literacy and numeracy; the Read Aloud Summit and the National Simultaneous Story Time initiative. These national projects underpin the Howard government’s efforts to ensure that education policy, school practice and classroom teaching are effective in raising the literacy and numeracy of disadvantaged students.

This bill maintains the Australian government’s commitment to a strong school sector by assisting government and non-government schools with vital educational items, important building projects and improvements in literacy and numeracy standards, which will support improved educational outcomes for all Australian students. I commend this bill to the House.

Debate (on motion by Mr Stephen Smith) adjourned.