Kym Richardson (Kingston, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I continue the speech that I started before question time. We expect students to learn and teachers to teach in classrooms that, in some cases, could be considered occupationally unsafe and against occupational health, safety and welfare standards. This is due simply to the fact that state Labor governments have not continued or maintained their responsibility to our schools, children, teachers and hardworking parents who have paid their taxes and school fees. Whilst the state Labor governments are flush with GST funds, they are not keeping up their responsibilities.

We ask our teachers to give their all to provide a quality education to young people, some of whom come from struggling home environments, some of whom suffer from learning difficulties and some of whom simply do not want to be there. Yet the state government cannot provide an environment in which it is comfortable for them to do that. Even worse, how can we expect kids on a 40-degree day in Adelaide to sit let alone learn in those conditions? How can we possibly bring out the best in our children if we do not provide them with an environment which makes it possible for them to bring out the best in themselves?

Flaxmill School are not alone in their story. I have had a number of schools seek air conditioning and heating under this program. Just as bad are the stories of schools with threadbare carpets who have to rely on this program for replacements because the state Labor government has ignored their plight for years. Even worse are the stories of local schools without access to adequately shaded play areas or any play areas at all. Not only do we require our children to swelter in the heat of the classroom but, in their play times, the state Labor government would have them exercising and playing in the damaging and glaring heat of the mid-afternoon sun. We have spent countless years and countless amounts of money trying to push the anti skin cancer message to generations of Australians, but the Rann Labor government in South Australia could not even provide adequate shade so that children were protected from the dangerous rays of the sun.

I recently visited Christie Downs Primary School in my local area. The principal and parent governing body had put a great deal of time and effort into their application for funding. When I saw the outcome of that funding from the federal government, I was overwhelmed by what they had achieved. They had received funding for the construction of a specialised learning area. This is an exceptionally disadvantaged area in my electorate. Those who work tirelessly at the school, and the volunteers, tell stories of children who still suffer the after-effects of foetal alcohol syndrome—some of whom come to school unfed and unwashed and whose home lives are beyond anything a child should have to endure. But when I visited this school, I saw a pride and an enthusiasm in the eyes of the children, teachers and parents alike. Students were excited about going to school because of these exceptional facilities, and having facilities of such a high quality in an area so often ignored and forgotten has prompted parents to actually take an interest in their child’s education. This program is no longer just about providing facilities to our educational institutions; it is about putting a sense of pride back into our schools and local communities and it is about bringing the best out in our children.

I have also been surprised by the number of schools that have sought funding under the Investing in Our Schools Program for IT and computer equipment. In this day and age, when young people who graduate from our high schools are expected to be computer literate, I find it astounding that the state Labor governments have not even provided the most basic of computer equipment in some schools. We heard the Leader of the Opposition this morning talking about his grand broadband plan. I might take this opportunity to suggest to the Leader of the Opposition that the best way he can move this nation forward in terms of its access to and use of computer technology is to wander up to his Labor Premier mates and suggest they start pulling their weight and put computers in our schools.

There are very few gifts in life that we can give our children which are more precious and more vital than a good quality education. For a young person from a disadvantaged background, an education has the capacity to raise them up, inspire them to greater things and ultimately break the cycles of poverty, welfare dependence and domestic violence. We owe each and every Australian student the best education in the best possible facilities we can provide, and this bill seeks to take another step towards achieving that aim.

While I am on the subject of schools which achieve great things for their students, I would like to take the opportunity to commend Seaford 6-12 School in my electorate, which today received the best national achievement award under the Australian government’s National Awards for Quality Schooling, as well as the inaugural medal of distinction. There is no greater example of what a school can achieve for its students through hard work and genuine dedication than what Seaford 6-12 has managed to achieve in the last five years, and I commend them on that achievement.

What the Seaford 6-12 example shows us is the momentum a little inspiration can create, and the Investing in Our Schools Program has been a catalyst for many schools to do exactly that—for teachers, parents and students to take that extra step, to create momentum and to create pride both in their school and in their own education. This program brings parents into the schools and makes them involved in their children’s education by seeking their input and approval of the project for which funding is sought. Who better to judge what learning minds need at their school than their parents and teachers together?

This program and this bill seek to provide funding to both government and non-government schools because we on this side of the House believe that when parents make choices in relation to their children’s education they should not be disadvantaged by a government which refuses to spend their taxpayers’ dollars on their child’s education. But then we on this side of the House are not beholden to unions that pay for our election campaigns. I would like to take this opportunity to thank and praise both the current and former ministers for education for creating and administering a program which actually works and provides on-the-ground outcomes for local schools and their students. This is a sensational example of what can be achieved with strong and disciplined economic management and the guidance of ministers who have a vision and belief in Australian education.

In closing, I have raised my two boys and lived my life guided by the ideal that we owe our children a standard of life and a standard of education better than we received, and this government seeks to uphold that principle with programs like Investing in Our Schools. That is why I am proud to sit on this side of the House and I am proud of this bill. And that is why I commend this bill to the House.

Bruce Baird (Cook, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise in support of the Schools Assistance (Learning Together—Achievement Through Choice and Opportunity) Amendment Bill 2007. I think that all members of this House would very much welcome this program. It certainly has meant a significant difference to schools across Australia, particularly in my electorate of Cook. It was well received by the school principals, students and, of course, parents and P&Cs. Very often it is a monument to the fact that the education departments and the governments in the various states have failed to carry out the role that they should have.

Think of the article in today’s Herald, which outlines toilets in some schools that have been blocked for 10 years because they simply have not put the funds required into this program. Think of the many schools in my electorate that have been neglected for years. Some of them have not been touched for about 20 years. The only exception, of course, is if it is a marginal seat—then watch the funding go. I have the marginal seat of Miranda in my electorate. Hundreds of thousands of dollars—millions—have been spent on schools in that electorate while the one alongside gets hardly anything because it is not marginal and they do not care.

When you see the schools full of demountables, plumbing that does not work, inadequate facilities, poor maintenance, a lack of computers to assist students, a lack of musical and sporting equipment, lack of shadecloth and coverage you understand why it was necessary for the federal government to become involved in this program. It is not an area that we should naturally be in, considering the very significant increase in the amount of GST funding to the states. But, nevertheless, we are, and I know that schools across Australia are very grateful that this has happened.

In my electorate of Cook we have received $3.1 million for all rounds. This includes funding for Cronulla South Public School, Grays Point Public School, Gymea High School, Kareela Public School, Kirrawee Public School, Miranda North Public School, Miranda Public School, Sylvania Public School and Woolooware Public School. They are all very grateful for the assistance that they have received. By extending the funding of the Investing in Our Schools Program to a total of $1.2 billion, the government is demonstrating its commitment to education in this country.

We have an outstanding Minister for Education, Science and Training in this government. She is doing her best to deliver not only quality education and appropriate standards across the country but also the infrastructure and the physical facilities so necessary in the schools. We have provided new library books, musical instruments, play equipment and computers to hundreds of thousands of students around Australia. We have also provided urgently needed repairs and upgrades to infrastructure, again highlighting the state governments’ chronic neglect of their own government schools.

This bill provides an additional $181 million to the final round of the Investing in Our Schools Program. Of this, $127 million is earmarked for a final funding round for state government schools in 2007 while a further $54 million is for non-government schools for the year 2007-08. This funding is specifically intended for schools that have received little or no previous funding under the program.

The $1.2 billion spent on Investing in Our Schools from 2005 to 2008 represents a massive capital injection into educational infrastructure. When considered alongside the $1.7 billion spent on the Capital Grants Program over the same period, total Australian government spending on school infrastructure comes to $2.9 billion. That is an impressive level of commitment to teachers, parents and, most importantly, school students.

The members in my electorate are very enthusiastic about the program. It has allowed students to access equipment that would otherwise be beyond their reach. It has allowed teachers to incorporate learning tools in their classrooms that have, until now, been unaffordable in the school’s budget. It has given several principals in my electorate a chance to repair and upgrade basic infrastructure that has been left to fall into disrepair by the New South Wales government. Obviously this is a state responsibility, and yet we certainly have seen it neglected right across the country. Investing in Our Schools has gone some way to addressing this neglect by providing the Australian government with the direct ability to respond actively to situations where there is a clear need for resources and where chronic neglect is occurring in state government schools.

Last November I unveiled a new showcase computer room at Gymea Technology High School, an approved project under round 1 of Investing in Our Schools. This showcase computer room is filled with state-of-the-art equipment suitable for students studying industrial technology, multimedia and software design in their HSC year. I was shown examples of student work in this class and I was most impressed. The principal, John Bedwell, is doing a great job at that school. He was involved in wanting technology outcomes for his students. Equipment like this showcase computer room helps to make these outcomes reality and this is why schools in my electorate are such big supporters of the program.

In another example, in December last year I went to Grays Point Public School to officially launch $40,000 of new laptops funded under round 1 of Investing in Our Schools. These students were able to research on the internet as a class for a project they were doing on international aid to Africa, an area of policy in which I maintain a very close interest. It was fantastic to see this computer equipment at the disposal of these year 5 students, and I am told that these laptops are now being used by students in year 2 right through to year 6.

Grays Point Public School used an additional amount of $24,000, allocated under Investing in Our Schools, to install a rainwater tank system for their toilet block. I commend the principal, Phil Rouland, for such a forward-thinking approach and such an environmentally considerate use of funding that was available to them. Now Grays Point public are flushing their toilets with rainwater and helping to do their bit in light of Sydney’s water crisis.

From my observations at a local level, the Investing in Our Schools Program is doing more than just injecting much-needed money into capital projects. It is also developing a very significant culture in school communities, allowing greater involvement for parents and friends and teachers and all members of the school community in developing priorities for their school’s infrastructure needs. I am very pleased with this trend. It takes an inclusive approach to involve the parents, friends and students.

In addition to the bill’s provisions to extend funding for the Investing in Our Schools Program, there is also the additional amount for the Capital Grants Program. The Capital Grants Program is providing large-scale infrastructure projects for schools. As I mentioned earlier, a total of $1.7 billion has been allocated under this program from 2005 to 2008. There has already been $1.2 billion of this money allocated to state government schools and an estimated $495 million will be provided to Catholic and independent schools in the same funding period.

Again the primary responsibility for schools’ capital works and maintenance of school facilities is held by state and territory governments, but they continue to not provide and deliver. One school in my electorate has been very fortunate under the Capital Grants Program. Caringbah High School received funding of $6.9 million from the Australian government to completely rebuild and relocate their main school campus.

I have been down to Caringbah high. Caringbah high is an outstanding selective school in my area. It achieves amongst the top results in the state at HSC time. I observed at this school a massive crack running from one end to the other. The building has been so poorly kept there was no saving the whole structure. It is a very large investment in Caringbah High School—$6.9 million—and I am sure the students, parents and teachers at the school will benefit greatly from the new facilities when they are completed. Across New South Wales, the Australian government has provided $96.4 million to public schools in 2007 alone.

In light of the current election campaign in full swing in New South Wales, I think it is fairly appropriate to reflect on these funding levels. Despite very significant support from the Commonwealth in recent years, the New South Wales government has failed abysmally to provide for its own schools. I have one school in my electorate, Burraneer Bay Public School, that was provided with a major amount of funding from the federal government under the Capital Works Program. Again it is waiting for matching funds from the state government, and they have not been delivered. The school is full of demountables.

The fact that it is in what is seen as a safe Liberal seat is why they have not given it priority. If it were in the seat held by Barry Collier, the member for Miranda, it would be an entirely different story. I am sure we all expect politics to be involved at some point, but the blatant use of it so that some students are advantaged and others significantly disadvantaged is totally unacceptable and smacks of a Third World country rather than a modern democratic country. The outline in today’s Sydney Morning Herald of the chronic problems across the state is significant. The most shameless part of it all is how the Iemma government try to blame the Australian government for their problems. They try to divert attention from their abject failure to deliver basic school services and to meet school maintenance and capital works needs.

I thank the Prime Minister and the Treasurer for their support for the program, as well as the Minister for Education, Science and Training, who does an outstanding job in her portfolio. I wholeheartedly support the intentions of this bill. I am sure we all are very pleased with the amount of funding that the schools in each of our electorates receive through the program. It has certainly changed significantly the aspirations of many schools in my area. The school communities have come together and the P&Cs work effectively. When the results are announced, it is like Christmas Day. You phone up the schools and they say: ‘I’ve been waiting for this for so long. This is going to make such a difference to the school. You couldn’t have given me a better present. We’re all going to be thrilled. We’re all going to celebrate this.’

This should be happening automatically. It is not as if we are in some broken-down Third World country; this is modern Australia. The level of GST funding going to the states has been at an all-time high. In terms of the funding they have received, they should be investing in the schools themselves. It is the federal government who has come in and provided this round of funding to the tune of $1.2 billion. I am sure we all support the program. We lament the fact that state education departments are not fulfilling the role that has been required of them. We look forward to further opportunities to see a rollout of funding to support the level of education for our children. It is so important for our future.

Tony Windsor (New England, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Like most members of the chamber, I support the Schools Assistance (Learning Together—Achievement Through Choice and Opportunity) Amendment Bill 2007. I congratulate the government on putting the program together. Thirty-nine schools in my electorate have been the beneficiaries of funding through the Investing in Our Schools Program. I would like to raise a couple of issues. I do not intend to speak for a long time. The original program, as I understand it—and the minister, Julie Bishop, may correct me on the finer detail—was put in place to operate between 2005 and 2008. The amendment we are looking at today will essentially top up some money but will also rearrange the maximum amounts available to any one school. I am aware that the minister and the department have received various complaints, with people taking issue with the changes—taking the maximum of $150,000 to any one school back to $100,000. That has caused some concern in my electorate and I am sure in other electorates as well.

I ask the minister whether she would look closely at this because there are some very genuine cases where schools have actually taken a little bit more time to plan the process of a particular extension to their school or a particular requirement for their school. We are all aware that getting quotes and those sorts of things does take time. In particular, in smaller schools it is not that easy to just get a quote for an extension to a school library or some other structure of the magnitude of $120,000 or $140,000.

Rather than actually name a school, I would just like to read part of an email that was sent to me from a school. We are not here to barbecue anybody, but I think it demonstrates to the minister and the department that the change in the rules has had an adverse effect on some schools. Other schools in my electorate and a couple outside of my electorate have also made contact in terms of what they believe is unfair treatment of their particular applications.

I read part of the email:

I am dismayed to read the guidelines of the 2007 round of submissions and find that the cap on the funding has been reduced to $100,000. Our school community has been planning to apply for funding for a library extension valued at $140,000. We received just under $10,000 in the 2005 round for a small project and expected that we could apply later for our library, making a total of $150,000, as promoted in the advertised guidelines. Our regional schools property officer, the school council—

and the person who has written the email—

have been working on our plans for well over a year and could have (with a rush)—

and I think this is a key point—

put in an application in the 2006 round. However, we were advised to do our planning properly—

and I think that is quite legitimate—

and thoroughly to maximise our chances of being successful. So we decided to wait an extra year to put our building scope and quotes together properly. At the time, our properties manager rang the department and checked whether there were to be any changes planned to the guidelines. She was told that all should proceed as advertised originally …

I again refer to the original program, which was for 2005 to 2008.

Now we find that the guidelines have changed and our whole project is a no-goer. There is no way we can extend the library with $90,000. We are a rural school with a multitude of disadvantages. It is tough to get tradesmen to come into our town for an emergency, let alone to walk through our plans and prepare quotes. We have worked damned hard to get our vision moving towards reality and we are devastated to find that the rules have been changed.

I can provide a level of documentation to prove that our plans have been in the pipeline for over a year and will do so if necessary, but that is an additional job that the community and I will look kindly upon. I am asking you to consider our case and stick to the original, well-advertised guidelines that we have been working within. We want to apply for our library extension to the value of $140,000 in 2007.

I know people have been in touch with the department and the answer is coming—that the guidelines have changed or that is under the old rules. I am not suggesting that everybody should suddenly be allowed to reapply for $150,000, but I think that consideration should be given where schools have a paper trail showing that they were working towards a legitimate expansion of their school within what they thought were going to be the maximum guidelines.

If you look at the original bill, as I understand it, for 2005 to 2008 the limit was $150,000, so schools would have quite rightly assumed that, if they were putting together their planning arrangements, they would have been able to make those plans in accordance with the rules and extend them into the next year. As I have suggested, the original program was for $150,000.

I would ask the minister at the table, Minister Andrews, whether he would convey this story to the minister. I thought of trying to amend the legislation so that some sort of appeals process could be put in place. That can be done at a future time, but I do not think that there is a need to play games with amending the legislation.

Where there are legitimate cases, there should be an opportunity for those cases to be treated and handled in the correct fashion. That is not to suggest that everybody now suddenly goes back out to $150,000, but where it can be shown that schools have been working diligently to achieve an outcome and have not just rushed a quote in to garner the money, they should be treated with the regard that I think the program was put in place to deliver. Having said that, I believe the program has been successful, and this is the only real blemish that I see on the horizon.

I notice that the Labor Party has an amendment condemning the government for reducing the amount from $150,000 to $100,000. I will not be supporting that amendment even though I have spoken about that very issue. It is the right of government to vary programs from time to time. But in doing so they have to make an allowance for those who had their applications and their procedural processes in train that were going to come forward under the old rules. They should be considered in a compassionate way.

Trish Draper (Makin, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to support the Schools Assistance (Learning Together—Achievement Through Choice and Opportunity) Amendment Bill 2007. This bill ensures the Australian government’s continued commitment to a strong education sector by providing government and non-government schools with the necessary support to guarantee improved educational outcomes for all Australian students. This support includes imperative educational items including capital infrastructure, important building projects and improvements in literacy and numeracy, all of which are vital to a student’s learning. Just one of the ways this will occur is through the Investing in Our Schools Program. This bill provides further significant investment for Australian school communities and, more importantly, it provides additional funding for capital infrastructure grants available under this Howard government initiative.

The Investing in Our Schools Program is an Australian government initiative providing $1 billion in funding for smaller infrastructure projects. Throughout the life of the program government schools have been allocated $700 million, with $300 million being provided to non-government schools. I can personally attest to the tremendous success and overwhelming popularity of this initiative from school communities who have accessed this funding initiative. Since the establishment of the Investing in Our Schools Program, schools in Makin have received over $4.1 million. This investment is significant, but the most overwhelming positive for school communities is that it provided for projects that they chose and wanted. These projects invariably are ones that local parents, students and teachers feel would make the greatest amount of difference for their local school community. This funding has been provided for small-scale projects that help to repair, replace or install items critical to schools’ needs. On a regular basis I have had the honour and the privilege to visit these schools to see the real results and the positive impact this investment has had on the learning environment of students and the entire school community.

Some of the schools in my electorate that have benefited from the program include Ardtornish Primary School, Banksia Park International High School, Golden Grove High School and Golden Grove Primary School, Greenwith Primary School, Gulfview Heights Primary School, Ingle Farm East Primary School, Modbury High School, Modbury preschool to year 7 at Modbury North, Modbury Special School, Modbury West Primary School, North Ingle Primary School, Para Hills East Primary School, Para Hills Primary School, Pooraka Primary School, Redwood Park, Ridgehaven, Surrey Downs, Tea Tree Gully Primary School and Valley View Secondary School. Mr Deputy Speaker, you can see that schools across my electorate of Makin have benefited greatly from this wonderful program.

Some of the projects for the programs included air conditioning, ICT facilities, play equipment, shade structures, play areas, playground equipment, floor coverings, toilet blocks, school grounds improvements and general classroom improvements. It has been a wide-ranging program and these projects would never have been possible without funding from the federal government. Unfortunately, state governments, which are supposed to have responsibility for funding these projects, have not made them a priority. It has taken the Australian government, under the Howard initiative of the Investing in Our Schools program, to fund those projects.

I am extremely pleased that this bill will see an injection of funding into the Investing in Our Schools program. It is a practical measure relating to the Prime Minister’s announcement of 19 February 2007 that the Australian government will provide an additional investment of $181 million to schools across Australia. Of this further $181 million, $127 million will be directed to the final round of funding to state government schools in 2007 and $54 million will be allocated for non-government schools over 2007 and 2008. To be equitable, the additional Investing in Our Schools funding has appropriate safeguards to ensure equitable funding arrangements and it will be targeted towards schools that have received little or no funding to date.

Whilst this $181 million is a welcome announcement, the government recognises that these specialised programs must complement increasing budgetary funding for schools. We all know that it is only possible to increase funding in areas such as education, health, and law and order when the government finances are in check and the government’s policies are providing the climate for a strong economy. To this end, 2006 will go down in history as the year in which the Howard government finally rid itself of the $96 billion black hole left behind by 13 years of the Hawke-Keating Labor government.

The current bill complements the Schools Assistance (Learning Together—Achievement Through Choice and Opportunity) Act 2004, which reflects the government’s funding commitments and educational priorities by providing a record estimated $33 billion in funding to all Australian schools over the four years 2005 to 2008. This represents a 158 per cent increase in funding since 1996. Of this record level of funding, $9.3 billion was allocated in the 2006-07 budget; an estimated $3.4 billion has been allocated for state schools and $5.9 billion for non-government schools.

The Australian government believes that every parent, having paid their taxes, deserves some level of public assistance to support the education of their child, regardless of which school their child attends, and provides funding to all students accordingly. The additional funding provided by this bill demonstrates the government’s ongoing commitment to ensuring that students receive high-quality education in a high-quality school from a high-quality teacher no matter where they attend.

In addition to the Investing in Our Schools program, this bill also provides funding of $11.7 million under the capital grants program for non-government schools to maintain the current level of funding to the end of 2008. The Australian government funding for capital works provided through the capital grants program is supplementary to funds provided by state and territory governments and by non-government school authorities, which have the primary responsibility for providing, maintaining and upgrading their school facilities.

The bill will also provide nearly $9.5 million for the national projects element of the Literacy, Numeracy and Special Learning Needs Program for 2008. The additional funding will ensure continued support for 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 and the annual National Literacy and Numeracy Week—with 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. The annual National Literacy and Numeracy Week is a key annual initiative, with a range of activities across Australia, including national awards for schools and individual awards for improving literacy and numeracy. Key national activities in 2006 included the Read Aloud Summit, National Simultaneous Story Time, and the Dorothea Mackellar Poetry Awards.

The annual National Literacy and Numeracy Week aims to: showcase the hard work schools and individuals in the community are undertaking in improving literacy and numeracy skills, recognise the outstanding results that have been achieved, raise community awareness of the importance of developing effective literacy and numeracy skills, and build on national initiatives to improve literacy and numeracy skills among young Australians. This is a wonderful initiative by the Howard coalition government, and I am pleased to commend this bill to the House.

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

The Howard government’s Investing in Our Schools program has been a hugely beneficial program for thousands of schools throughout Australia. The Schools Assistance (Learning Together—Achievement Through Choice and Opportunity) Amendment Bill 2007 contains measures that will provide an additional $181 million in Australian government funding to meet the immediate needs of school communities throughout the nation. This bill seeks to exceed the government’s original commitment of $1 billion by providing an additional $181 million for a total of $1.181 billion for this program.

To date, the federal government’s Investing in Our Schools program has provided more than $656 million for 15,100 projects in 6,166 state government schools across the country. It has provided $210 million for 2,031 projects in 1,603 non-government schools across the country. Due to the overwhelming popularity and incredible need for capital funding for basic infrastructure in schools throughout Australia, the Howard government has decided to give this additional funding so that more schools can benefit from the program. The success of the Investing in Our Schools program has highlighted the failures and chronic neglect, particularly on the part of state governments, towards school infrastructure.

Essentially, the federal government’s Investing in Our Schools program is a gift to schools in need and is fixing the problems that state Labor governments have ignored. Across Australia, there have been thousands of schools which have desperately sought this funding—funding which, for state government schools, is in fact the responsibility of state governments to provide. In many instances, it has been quite disheartening to see the condition which the state governments have allowed schools to be in throughout this country. During the process, I have seen and heard of many sad examples of neglect in maintaining state government schools.

Investing in Our Schools program funds have not only helped schools to repair basic infrastructure like toilet blocks; they have also refurbished classrooms and installed new computer equipment, upgraded old or dangerous playgrounds, purchased new items such as library books and sporting equipment, and installed air conditioning and shadecloth in schools across the country.

While this federal government program has actually now shamed a number of state governments into increasing their commitment to capital funding for state government schools—and that is a long overdue increase—I have found some aspects of the response by state governments throughout Australia to this extremely positive program disappointing. State Labor governments—and I will particularly identify Western Australia and New South Wales—have chosen to use this program as an opportunity to create their own financial gains by reaping funds from the Investing in Our Schools program, taking funds from schools by means of excessive project management or administration fees. State governments have actually taken fees from these projects that effectively stripped schools of some of their Commonwealth funding, and they are charging them excessive amounts for implementation. This is clearly unacceptable. It is an unfair action on the part of state governments, and I have written to them about it. They are taking money from school projects and that is not in the spirit of the IOS program. I renew my call to state governments who are skimming off excessive project management or administration fees to repay those funds to the schools. If a school receives funding from the Commonwealth for a project, then that is the funding that that school should receive. It should not have amounts skimmed off by the state Labor governments.

The Howard government have funded all Australian schools at record levels since coming to office in 1996. We will provide a record $33 billion in funding for Australian schools over the four years from 2005 to 2008. Funding to Australian schools has increased by almost 160 per cent, from $3.6 billion in 1996 to $9.3 billion in 2006-07. Through increased financial assistance to schools, particularly schools serving the neediest communities, the government are seeking to improve the outcomes for all Australian students.

State governments have primary responsibility for education. The state governments own, operate and are the major source of funds for public schools, while the federal government supplements that funding as a percentage of the state investment. State governments accredit and regulate non-government schools, while the federal government provides the majority of public funding. So the responsibility for government and non-government schools is shared by the state and federal governments.

It has been claimed that there is decreasing Commonwealth funding to state government schools. That is not true. In fact, the opposite is true. The government has provided record levels of funding to state government schools every year since 1996—an increase of over 118 per cent. It is interesting to note that enrolments in government schools have increased by only 1.2 per cent during that time. It is also claimed that non-government schools are supported at the expense of government schools. That is not true; that is not the case. The Howard government believes that it is every parent’s right to choose the best educational outcome for their child, and this government’s funding policies have provided parents with greater choice in schooling than ever before. There has been a 21½ per cent increase in enrolments at non-government schools since 1996. Even so, 67 per cent of students are enrolled in public schools that receive 75 per cent of total public funding. Thirty-three per cent of students are enrolled in non-government schools that receive 25 per cent of total public funding.

The Howard government is already making a significant investment in school buildings and infrastructure under the capital grants program. This program is providing an estimated $1.7 billion over 2005-08 to assist with the building, maintenance and updating of schools throughout Australia. This includes an estimated $1.2 billion in capital grants funding for state and territory government schools and an estimated $480 million for Catholic and independent schools. That does not include the funding in this bill. This bill will provide $11.7 million for capital funding for non-government schools for 2008. This funding is to maintain the existing levels of funding; without this amendment, capital funding for non-government schools for 2008 would decrease.

So, through this bill, the highly successful Investing in Our Schools program will be bolstered by an additional $181 million. Of this funding, an additional $127 million will be made available for state government schools and $54 million will be provided for non-government schools. Almost 90 per cent of state government schools throughout Australia have already received funding through this program.

While the majority of students across the country are already benefiting from projects funded by the program, there remain a number of schools that have not yet applied for funding or that have only received a small amount. The Australian government is targeting these schools for the additional funds, to assist all Australian state government schools to benefit from the Investing in Our Schools program and give all state government schools the opportunity to access the new funding. State government schools which have received no funding or smaller amounts of funding will be able to apply for projects that take their total approved grants from all rounds of the Investing in Our Schools program up to $150,000. That is the average amount that schools have received under the three rounds now completed. For non-government schools, the additional funds are for grants of up to $75,000, again targeting schools that have received little or no funding under the program to date.

This bill takes our commitment over and above our 2004 election commitment of $1 billion; it is now an almost $1.2 billion program. This bill responds to the specific needs of schools and school communities. This government will continue to identify and respond to community aspirations for Australian schools to deliver the highest standards of education possible. The Australian government are committed to supporting a quality school education for all Australian children. The programs and initiatives we are putting in place are helping to create an Australian education system of high national standards, national consistency and quality so that all young people are prepared to meet the future demands of life and work.

This bill reinforces the Howard government’s ongoing commitment to ensuring that Australian children are given the best opportunity to have a quality learning experience in the best possible environment. I commend this bill to the House.

Harry Jenkins (Scullin, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The original question was that this bill be now read a second time. To this the honourable member for Perth has moved as an amendment that all words after ‘That’ be omitted with a view to substituting other words. The question now is that the words proposed to be omitted stand part of the question.

Question agreed to.

Original question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.

Message from the Governor-General recommending appropriation announced.