Darren Cheeseman (Corangamite, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for School Education, Early Childhood and Youth. Will the minister inform the House of the government's commitment to help families in meeting the costs of education and to make sure that they can provide a better future for their children?

Peter Garrett (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Minister for School Education, Early Childhood and Youth) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Corangamite for that question. This government has been committed to education as the great enabler in Australian society because we know that for any young person to reach their potential, to get a good job for the future, having a great education lies at the foundation of that. No government has delivered more over a shorter period of time in policies on and investment into education: the big improvements in school facilities, bringing through a national curriculum, delivering transparency through the My School website and national partnerships focusing on lifting education performance in schools right around Australia.

We understand that for parents, whose No. 1 priority is to make sure that their kids get a good education, that comes with costs: costs that come along with school excursions, kids growing out of school uniforms and kids literally growing before their eyes. That is why the budget had a schoolkids bonus in it. It was so that parents could make decisions about how they support their kids in the costs that they have to meet when they go to school—$410 for kids in primary school; $820 for kids in secondary school. In fact, on Friday, 15 June, people around Australia can expect to see Labor members of parliament, who are proud of this initiative, at the schools in their communities, telling people about this schoolkids bonus. The fact is that over one million families will benefit from this initiative. In fact, people will start seeing cheques coming into their accounts this month and in June. Then it will happen before first term and it will happen before third term.

But, when we announced this schoolkids bonus, the Leader of the Opposition came out straight away and knocked this by saying he thought that parents were going to spend the money on pokies. Then his shadow ministers chimed in on the negative chorus to describe it as a hit list. The fact is this: this government trusts families to make decisions about spending money on education because we know that families rate education very highly, but the opposition leader did not trust families to make that decision themselves. This is because his inherent negativity has given over to a negativity that even Australian families can make decisions about how they want to spend money to support their kids.

Here on this side of the House we are going to make every school a great school. We walk away from the negativity of the Leader of the Opposition, who would not even accept that families around Australia could make the best decisions in the interests of their own kids to apply a schoolkids bonus.