Justine Elliot (Richmond, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak about the success of Gonski funding in my electorate of Richmond. Of course, this funding is so important and so vital because it ensures that every Australian child gets a high-quality education no matter their background. It is presenting great results in my community, and we certainly need to see Gonski funding continuing. I would like to give an example. Ballina High School recently celebrated their Gonski-funded programs as part of National Gonski Week, which ended on 1 November. The meeting they had emphasised the very crucial nature of funding for schools such as Ballina High. They had a very long list of successful programs at the school, including subsidising iPads for first year students and a bus service to ensure drivers could take kids to other schools, which allowed them to offer more subjects to their students. This all happened with funding of nearly $700,000 through Gonski.

However, new research reported by the New South Wales Teachers Federation reveals that the Liberal-National government's funding cuts to Gonski will rip a projected $2.67 billion out of public schools in the 2018-20 period alone. That is a huge amount and it will be devastating to many schools, particularly those in regional and rural areas. As the federal member for Richmond—which will soon include Ballina—can I make it very clear that I will always oppose these cruel cuts to our education funding, and I will continue to advocate for high-quality education programs such as the Gonski scheme, which makes a huge difference to the lives of so many of our regional and rural students.