Andrew Southcott (Boothby, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As we speak, thousands of South Australian teachers and parents are rallying across South Australia protesting against the South Australian Labor government’s budget cuts to public schools. These cuts will take $84 million from public schools over the next four years. The government announced the cuts last year and they have now told schools that that will be raised by a one per cent WorkCover levy on their staff budgets. This money will have to come out of the schools’ discretionary budgets. These budgets are used to highlight programs which the school community and principal decide are priorities, such as literacy and numeracy programs, and reading recovery programs. The amount of money that will be taken out of their budgets ranges from $3,000 for a small preschool to $60,000 for a school with 400 students and up to as much as $100,000 for a large high school.

To get an idea of what a Rudd Labor government would look like, we only need to point to the performance of the state Labor governments. Five years ago Michael Rann was elected on a platform to make health and education the priorities. In their most recent budget, the Rann government are clawing back money from government schools and preschools. Why? Three reasons: they have mismanaged their budget, they have mismanaged WorkCover and they are having to increase debt. A Rudd government would be—

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The member will refer to the Leader of the Opposition by his title.

Andrew Southcott (Boothby, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

A Labor government led by the Leader of the Opposition will be no better at managing the economy. In their most recent budget the South Australian government announced that they would be increasing their debt levels tenfold! This is the first time we have seen an increase in the debt level in South Australia since the days of the State Bank debacle. When we look at the community reaction to this in the letters to the editor for the Advertiser today, Glyn O’Brien, President of South Australian Primary Principals Association, has said:

We can’t afford it. We have to carefully and cautiously plan over a three-year period for computer upgrades, additional staffing to support students with learning difficulties or to buy books to encourage and enrich reading.”

Andrew Gay, the school council chairman of Westbourne Park Primary School in the electorate of Boothby estimates that WorkCover will cost that school $60,000. In a letter to the editor he said:

We have no option but to take money budgeted for other critical areas of student support to help pay this levy.

And he goes on to say:

... the impacts on class size, teacher workload and possible extra costs to parents all are leading to a disaster for so-called public education.

The problem is that this decision undoes all the good work which has been achieved locally. Some of the projects which I have worked hard to deliver include $1.2 million for new classrooms and a new library at the Coromandel Valley Primary School and over $2 million on a major capital upgrade at Colonel Light Gardens Primary School, and there are now in the pipeline major capital upgrades at Bellevue Heights Primary School and Paringa Park Primary School. These are all projects which the federal government has pushed for and which I have pushed for as the local member. We now have Investing in Our Schools money for every school in the electorate of Boothby, with several up to the maximum amount of $150,000. The state Labor government need to admit they have got it wrong. Teachers and parents are furious at this decision to take money out of their discretionary budgets. The Labor government need to reverse this decision and not claw back the $84 million over the next four years which they are taking out of government schools.