Joanne Ryan (Lalor, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) acknowledges the start of the 2026 school year and the Government's record investment in Australian public schools through the Better and Fairer Schools Agreement;

(2) notes that this agreement represents the largest Commonwealth investment in public schools by any Australian Government ever and is tied to important reforms to lift student outcomes;

(3) recognises the importance of teachers and the steps the Government is taking to tackle the teacher shortage;

(4) further notes that new data shows more Australians are choosing to study teaching, supported by important measures to help more people start and finish teaching degrees including through:

(a) Commonwealth Paid Prac for teaching students;

(b) Commonwealth Teaching Scholarships; and

(c) reforms to strengthen teacher training;

(5) further acknowledges the national effort being undertaken with states and territories to prevent and respond to bullying in schools; and

(6) affirms that the Government continues to invest in schools, support teachers, and is committed to building a better and fairer education system.I stand here a proud Labor member, the member for Lalor, representing community in the outer west of Melbourne, in a seat where I follow Julia Gillard, our first female prime minister, who gave her public life to being a champion for public education in this country.

I follow her as someone who spent 27 years in state education in Victoria, who finished as a school principal before coming to this place. I stand here proudly with the member for Bass, another teacher colleague, on my right and the member for Makin on my left. I'm proud because we are doing something to build that fairer education system that we know will transform our country, because education transforms lives, individual lives, the lives of our communities, our civil society, our economy. Education transforms our productivity. It is therefore a central pillar of any federal Labor government. I'm really pleased to see that the minister, the member for Blaxland, has been getting busy on making sure that we have a fair funding model for our schools. I note that, in the start of the 2026 school year, we can proudly say that we have delivered on national agreements to make sure that our public schools are getting the funding that they need and that our public schools are getting fair funding.

When we came to government, of course, we followed the Morrison government, who had made sure that private schools had all reached fair funding but had ignored what was happening in the public sector. This was not only to that government's detriment but it was to our country's detriment. We also know that there was a chronic teacher shortage. Again, we can proudly say that our education minister and our caucus have taken up with both hands to ensure that we have scholarships to attract people to teaching, and the results are already on the board, with improvements in that area and more people signing up every day with the introduction of paid paid prac, which will assist those people doing their teaching degrees to do their prac placements and not be out of pocket—all things to make sure that people are attracted to teaching.

As someone who spent decades in classrooms teaching our young people, I know how complex this work is. I know how much support every school, every system, every child needs to ensure that every young person in our school system reaches their potential, because this is what drives improved society and improved productivity for our country. There are lots of good economic reasons why there needs to be a significant spend to ensure fair funding in schools. As a Labor government, we don't need an economic reason to do the right thing; we only need to know that every child deserves the right to a quality education, and that's what this government is hell bent on delivering.

We have the national agreement across the country getting things right. What we took up when we came to government, what we found were: attendance rates were going down, high school completion was going down—this century—teacher shortages were getting worse, and the gap between advantaged and disadvantaged students was getting wider. Only Labor had a plan for Australian students and teachers. It's what our $16.5 billion Better and Fairer Schools Agreement is all about, and that's why it's so important. When those opposite scream 'spending!', I want them on the record to say they're not going to cut education funding. I want to know that up front. My community deserves to know that.

We're addressing the teacher shortage. It's the most important job in the world, but we don't have enough teachers. We need to attract more people to this great profession, a profession that gives you feedback every minute of the day. It's a profession that lets you see smiling children's faces, or watch children struggle with something and then come to their understanding of it in your presence, every day. I can't say this enough: those golden moments in classrooms are what our country is built on the back of. Forget the sheep's back; it's those moments in our classrooms where young people grasp a new skill, grasp a new idea, come to a new understanding, and that's why Labor supports public education.

Rebekha Sharkie (Mayo, Centre Alliance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Lalor. Is the motion seconded?

Jess Teesdale (Bass, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I second the motion and reserve the right to speak.

Rebekha Sharkie (Mayo, Centre Alliance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Bass.

Julian Leeser (Berowra, Liberal Party, Shadow Attorney-General) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This motion is full of self-congratulation and not about improving education. The reality is we are looking at an education system today under increasing pressure. Families, teachers and principals tell me the reality they're living with every day: standards are slipping, classrooms are harder to manage, teacher workloads are exploding and too many Australians are being left behind. This is a central failure of the Albanese government in education: announcements and slogans, amidst declining outcomes. It's what I hear every day from parents, and it's what's reflected in the data. Children increasingly can't read confidently at the age they're supposed to. Foundational learning's not being prioritised in the curriculum. STEM subjects are being increasingly taught by teachers who don't specialise in areas like maths and physics. Teachers are, unfortunately, increasingly having to be focused on behavioural management, distracting them from teaching.

This motion is about intergovernmental school funding. It's not about education outcomes. And, when you look at those outcomes, too many Australian students are going backwards. The statistics are terrible. Roughly one in three Australian school students are not mastering the reading skills they need. For a child to have a successful education, that starts with the ability to read; without it, they struggle to comprehend other areas of the curriculum and cannot fully participate in the opportunities that school is meant to provide. A University of South Australia study of students aged 11 to 14 found that the share who never read for fun jumped from 11 per cent in 2019 to 53 per cent in 2022. That's an extraordinary collapse in recreational reading in just a few years. If children aren't reading, they're not building vocabulary, fluency, comprehension and the background knowledge that makes every other subject easier. This motion doesn't talk about that.

It also doesn't talk about an issue that's ignored far too often, and that's boys' education. The data is clear and consistent. Boys trail girls in every NAPLAN literacy assessment—reading, writing, spelling, grammar, punctuation—in every age group. Average achievement for boys falls short of girls' in every NAPLAN domain except numeracy. Boys are twice as likely to score the lowest performance bands in literacy.

And this isn't a boys-versus-girls argument. We want every child to succeed. In the last two decades, we've made extraordinary strides in the education of women and girls, and those achievements must be celebrated. But there is clear data and a growing sense that the education system is letting too many of our boys fall behind. And we need to do better.

The most recent NAPLAN tests show that, by year 9, in writing, there's a 35-point gap between boys and girls—roughly one to two years of learning. That's an educational deficit that compounds year after year, and we see the consequences later in schooling pathways. The ABS reports that, in 2024, the year 10 to 12 apparent retention rate was 83½ per cent for women but only 76.4 per cent for male students. This motion doesn't talk about that—and it's a shame, because, rather than giving the government a pat on the back, we should be asking how we can lift these outcomes. Do we need more explicit teaching, a better and more knowledge-rich curriculum, better classroom management, less focus on screens in the early years?

This motion also speaks about teacher shortages. We all hear it from principals and parents, and we see it in hard-to-staff regions and subjects. When you look further into this, though, there's a second serious problem, and that's an expertise shortage, particularly in maths and science. The fastest-growing jobs in Australia need a strong grounding in maths and science, but the most recent data shows that almost 40 per cent of maths teachers and technology teachers were teaching out of field. Let me say that again: more than a third of those teaching maths aren't maths teachers. Subject knowledge matters. To teach advanced maths, you need strong maths expertise. To teach physics, you need to be able to confidently understand physics. I'm not having a crack at those teachers who are working out of field; that's not a problem they've created. But it's disappointing that, rather than talking about these issues, the government wants the parliament just to give it a pat on the back.

Let me turn to another concern parents raise with me regularly: schools and classrooms drifting away from education and into activism. Let me be clear. Classrooms must be a place of learning. Teachers hold a position of authority, and the teachers I know do a magnificent job. Parents send their kids to school to learn reading, writing, maths, science and all the other subjects; they don't send their kids to school to learn politics. Let's keep politics out of the classroom. Bluey is about dads and their kids, and it shouldn't be hijacked by pro-Hamas activists to be used in school as a propaganda tool aimed at children.

The priorities right now should be obvious. Teach the fundamentals well. Teach them explicitly. And ensure every student has the chance to succeed.

Finally, the government wants Australians to applaud its investment. But families are under pressure and costs are going up. Education costs rose 5.4 per cent in the last year and, over Labor's term in office, they rose 17 per cent. This motion doesn't recognise this. If funding goes up while outcomes go down, that's not success. If disruptions rise while learning slips, that's not reform.

Jess Teesdale (Bass, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It feels strange to me to be standing here in February. For the past 14 years, February has meant something very different to me. Every February I was welcoming new students in the classrooms, learning their names and their stories, and working closely with families to understand what each child would need to succeed that year. Some years I was teaching directly; other years I was supporting early-career teachers, helping them to build their confidence and develop the skills they needed to support students with additional needs, students learning English as an additional language or dialect, and students who required extra care and understanding.

At the start of a school year I've walked into classrooms with no mat, no puzzles, no games and no basic resources to teach literacy. I've seen teachers being expected to make do, to improvise or to pay for these essentials themselves. I've worked in remote schools where staff were forced to make impossible choices about what could be afforded and what could not. That is why the Better and Fairer Schools Agreement matters. Through this agreement the Albanese Labor government is delivering an additional $16.5 billion in Commonwealth funding to public schools over the next decade—the largest new investment in public schools by any Australian government ever. The funding is long term, it is reform-linked and it is designed to reach classrooms, not the upper echelons of the education departments. The investment is not abstract, it's not theoretical; it is about meeting the needs in classrooms, staff rooms and school communities across our country.

When I think about what this funding must deliver I think about the outcomes that it can and should make possible. It should mean that children who need that extra support in the early years receive it, early, before they fall behind. We know that timely intervention will build confidence, improve learning outcomes and strengthen a child's sense of self-worth for life. It should mean that students feel safe at school, supported by clear national action to prevent and respond to bullying, and that schools are backed to act quickly and consistently when concerns arise. It should mean that students facing mental health challenges can access a school counsellor, social worker or psychologist when they need it, not after months or years on a waiting list.

And it should mean that teachers are properly supported to do their jobs, that they no longer need to buy basic classroom resources out of their own pockets or to quietly keep cupboards of food stocked at their own expense because they know that many of their children are arriving at school very hungry. It'll mean that new teachers are welcomed, supported and valued so that they see teaching not as a short-term sacrifice but as a respected long-term profession. And it should mean that experienced teachers can stay in the classroom with manageable workloads, time to rest and the space to be present with their own families, rather than burning out under constant pressure. It should also mean that remote schools are never again forced to choose, such as mine was, between paying the water bill and fixing our ageing computers, because access to a quality education should never depend on the postcode in which you live.

This funding is not a blank cheque; it is tied to reforms that we know lift outcomes. We know stronger literacy and numeracy foundations are required. We know the evidence-based teaching that works and we have targeted support for the students who need it most. It is about making sure that children catch up, keep up and finish school with real options ahead of them, whether that's free TAFE, university or entry into the workforce.

And we are seeing signs of progress. More people are choosing to study teaching, more are starting their degrees and more are being supported to finish them. That momentum matters. But it will only continue if this investment is delivered as intended. The Commonwealth is stepping up. We are providing the funding, the national leadership and the reform framework required, and now it's the states and territories that must ensure that this investment reaches the classrooms, supports the teachers and makes a real difference in the communities that need it the most.

Education is a shared national responsibility, and it works best when governments work together and we stay focused on the outcomes. When schools thrive they spark excellence. They bring pride and purpose for students. Teachers feel empowered and our communities grow stronger. That is what this investment is about, and that is a responsibility that we all share. Our investment is targeted, our reform is real and our expectation is clear: better outcomes for all students. I commend this motion to the House.

Mary Aldred (Monash, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I passionately believe that your potential should not be determined by your postcode. Unfortunately, that is not a value shared by this federal Labor government when it comes to regional communities like mine in the electorate of Monash. Before I begin my remarks, I want to acknowledge my mum, Margie, who graduated 50 years ago from the Victorian Teachers College with her friend Franne Holowko, and they've remained best friends for 50 years. My mum still tells stories of some of the students that she most loved and that she supported through different challenges. My mum taught at some of the most disadvantaged schools in Victoria. That has really stayed with me and I really appreciate that. My mum gave up a career she really loved to raise me and my three siblings and so I just want to put on the record today how special and loved she is.

Across our schools, to the principals, teachers, education support staff, counsellors and volunteers in my electorate of Monash, I want to say thank you, because your commitment to making sure our students, our young people, are supported not just academically but as a whole is incredibly important to our entire community. On behalf of the people of Monash, I say thank you.

What stands out to me is their example, which reflects something we so often see across our education system: people, young and old, doing far more than what is written in any position description. It's that quiet, consistent effort that holds school communities together. As we discuss this motion, it's important that we keep those people front and centre of our remarks as well because policy funding and reform only matter when they're genuinely supporting the people there to make a difference and shape, develop, inspire and encourage the young people in our communities.

I want to acknowledge a couple of really special people in my electorate. After 41 years of teaching, 21 of those years at Nyora Primary School, Karen Farbus retired at the end of 2025. Over her years as both a principal and a teacher Karen made a lasting impact on students, families and the wider community. Nyora Primary School put together a special collection of letters and memories to celebrate her contribution and the real difference that Karen has made to every individual life she's touched at that school. So to Karen Farbus I say thank you.

I want to acknowledge education support staff, who work incredibly hard under incredibly difficult circumstances at many of our schools across Monash. They too are often overlooked, yet they're essential to keeping classrooms functioning, particularly as schools manage increasing complexity and ongoing teacher shortages. I hear from a lot of parents locally who are grappling with challenges that have emerged, particularly since COVID and remote learning, where young people are more reluctant to attend school. I've seen an increase in school refusal. So those teacher support staff are doing a really important job. I say thank you for the huge hours that you put in and your dedication and your care for students in Monash.

There are also those teacher support staff that are on the front line of managing a number of behavioural and additional learning needs presented by students. In supporting students directly and assisting in classrooms, education support staff reduce pressure on teachers, who are already stretched thin. I'm talking to a lot of parents in my electorate of Monash who tell me that classroom sizes are just expanding and expanding under this Victorian Labor government, who don't care about regional communities. Many parents in my community are experiencing the impact of that every single day. So, at a time when schools are struggling to recruit and retain, these education support staff are absolutely critical.

I also want to say that we've got a number of other schools doing terrific work in my electorate. Newhaven College had 144 new students join in 2026, with the preps welcomed to the college with a special parade. Leongatha Primary School had a preppie, Rex Williams, so eager to start that he turned up a day early. That's been shared with me and the local paper. Wonthaggi Primary School have returned, with work well underway on some exciting new developments. Enrolments are up on last year, with lots of brothers, sisters and cousins joining the current cohort of students.

Carina Garland (Chisholm, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm really pleased to rise today to speak on what the Albanese Labor government is doing to improve our education system. I thank the member for Lalor for bringing this motion to the House. We're really putting the effort in to ensure that the system of education in this country is fairer, more accessible and better resourced. It's so important that we do this work so that all children and our teachers have assurance that the system is going to support them and their ambitions. Our government understands that our job is to keep advancing the aspirations of our youth, ensuring that those who care for them are secure, and we know that that starts with full and fair funding for our public schools.

When I came to this place in 2022, it followed a campaign that was committed to undoing the damage of a near decade of neglect experienced by our public schools. It followed a commitment to putting public schools on a pathway to full and fair funding, and we continue delivering upon that commitment today. I really want to thank everyone who was involved in the campaign to deliver full and fair funding. It was a really important focus for the election campaigns but, more broadly, a really important public policy conversation to have.

The better, fairer schools agreement delivers on full and fair funding, a 10-year agreement with state and territory governments putting an extra $16.5 billion in the education system over the next decade and another $49 billion the decade after. This represents the biggest new investment in public schools by any Commonwealth government. It represents real resources for our schools, real funding for our teachers and real tools to give our children the quality education that they absolutely deserve. It's not just about money, though. It's about making sure that the money is going to the right places. It means investment in phonics checks and numeracy checks, areas that we know are absolutely essential in children's development. This money will go to evidence based teaching and catch-up tutoring for kids who do need that little bit more support.

We owe our schools the very best. We owe their teachers, students and families a standard of education that reflects a wider commitment to improved student-to-teacher ratios, stronger initial teacher education and getting our educators the respect they deserve for the incredible work that they do. That's why, for the first time ever, our government is delivering paid prac, curbing the teacher shortage by incentivising degrees in education and providing practical financial support for practical training. It means giving the most important jobs in the world a secure pathway for training so that, when the time comes for our aspiring educators to teach professionally in the classroom, our students get the very best.

I have many teachers in my family, including both of my siblings, who are teachers, and we have some absolutely incredible teachers right across the Chisholm electorate. I want to acknowledge the work that they do each and every day, thank them for the contribution they make to our nation and commit to doing everything I can as the local member to ensure that we always have their back. We know teachers get into the education system for one simple reason: to educate our kids to take on the future. It's the role of representatives in this place to ensure that they receive the appropriate support and compensation for that work.

It's because of our government's focus on education that we've been able to increase the number of students who are studying education courses, are studying to be teachers, when under the previous government it was, unfortunately, falling. Our government is working with state and territory governments to deliver for our schools. We saw money—billions of dollars, tens of billions of dollars—ripped out of public schools, and we're making sure that we correct that course and that we fully fund and fairly fund our public schools in this country. This is an important priority for our government, it's an important priority for any Labor government and we know that the investments we make today are about the future. It's about the long-term stability of the education system, it's about making sure that we have a sustainable workforce of teachers who know that government is supporting them and it's about children getting the best education they can to pursue opportunities in the future.

Cameron Caldwell (Fadden, Liberal National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There's nothing more that I enjoy speaking about in this place than education. I say that because we think in this place often of the future of our nation and of what that looks like. I also think of education through the prism of being the son of a schoolteacher. My mother, Therese, gave her entire career to teaching—a vocation that she personally took very seriously and one that she applied herself to. She specialised in the special education of those children who needed that little bit more effort. I know that she is representative of the teaching cohort that we are so very blessed to have in that profession across our country.

But this Labor government continues to put up motions like this one today so that they can self-congratulate for nothing more than a photo opportunity for the minister, a big dollar headline and—bingo!—problem solved. The reality is this. They keep using the words 'better' and 'fairer', but the truth is that the outcomes are not living up to that. Their Better and Fairer Schools Agreement is a 'record investment' but by its own evidentiary fact is an admission that the system wasn't being properly funded by this government for years beforehand.

It's this that provides me with the greatest deal of concern about the future. The Labor government, which prides itself on being some sort of righteous custodians of the education system, quite frankly can't manage money, and that puts frontline education services at risk. What also happens when you can't manage the federal budget is the pressure that our schools are feeling. When you talk to our school principals, teachers and administrators, they say that students are coming to school feeling the pressures of social and economic hardship. If this government was serious about making the education system better and fairer, it would do more for families in order to provide food on the breakfast table, lunch in lunchboxes and dinner served at night. Instead, we've got kids turning up for school without food and without shoes, and that is not an equitable outcome or what our children deserve in this country.

I think about some of the schools in my electorate, and I visit many of them. One of the things that they're doing, for example, is the initiative that Principal Landon Dare has introduced at Arundel State School, which is the Mental Wealth Day, because they recognise that some of the greatest pressures on our students are no longer just in the classroom. That is an initiative that is extremely well supported by the community, who have really bought into it. Our schools continue to bear these social challenges and these government failures. Now on the horizon, I'm hearing from schools, is their uncertainty around what the Thriving Kids initiative will look like when it's rolled out in order to try and offload some of the NDIS burden that this government has created for itself. That is a big factor of uncertainty for our schools, parents and students. But, as always, our teachers will do what they do best and press on hard in the classroom.

In closing, I want to give a couple of quick shout-outs, because at the end of last year we had a couple of departures from local schools including that of Steve Josey from Labrador State School, who's moved down to Broadbeach. He is sorely missed by our community, and it was wonderful that he was able to attend the grade 6 graduation last year with a cohort that he'd seen through for many years. Also, my best wishes to Murray Gleadhill, who, up until last year, was the principal at Coombabah State School. He encountered some health issues, but he was able to attend the Coombabah State School grade 6 graduation. That shows the intent of these two men to give their all to those schools and their genuine engagement in what's best for the school groups. I wish both of them well in the next part of their journeys.

Tania Lawrence (Hasluck, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

At the outset, I want to acknowledge the start of the 2026 school year for students and their families and for the teachers and school staff right across Australia and especially back home in Hasluck. The beginning of the school year is always a time of energy and optimism—from new students nervously holding their parents' hands, to year 12s starting to think about life beyond school.

Public schools sit at the heart of Hasluck. They serve families in fast-growing suburbs such as Ellenbrook, Brabham and Aveley, as well as our long-established communities around Noranda, Bassendean, Ashfield and Midland. They reflect the diversity of our electorate, culturally, socially and economically. And they do so with professionalism, and pride and care in all that they do. Schools such as Ellenbrook Secondary College and Aveley Secondary College are supporting students in rapidly-growing areas, offering academic pathways, alongside vocational education and training that helps our students prepare for work and further study and apprenticeships.

In Ellenbrook, too, we now have a university study hub, to help bridge the gap for students living far from universities. I have to say that, on visiting, it is always full, as students are loving that collegiate atmosphere and being able to study when they're not on campus.

Schools like Governor Stirling Senior High School, Moorditj Noongar Community College and Hampton Senior High School offer specialist focus areas in the arts and sports, helping students thrive through creativity and teamwork and discipline, right from tiny tots all the way through to year 12. At the primary level, especially, at schools such as Midvale Primary School and Brabham Primary School, their focus on early literacy and numeracy and student wellbeing and community engagement lays the foundation for lifelong learning and for really upstanding citizens.

This is the context in which the Better and Fairer Schools Agreement matters so deeply. This agreement represents the largest Commonwealth investment in public schools by any Australian government, and it is tied to reforms that focus squarely on lifting student outcomes. It recognises that fairness in education means funding schools according to need and giving them the certainty to plan, invest and innovate for the long term. The agreement lifts the funding to 100 per cent of the schooling resource standard. It becomes another proud Labor legacy.

Of course, funding alone doesn't educate students; teachers do. That is why this motion rightly acknowledges the vital role of teachers and the national effort underway to address workforce shortages. Teachers in Hasluck give of themselves every day. They are educators, mentors, role models and trusted adults for young people navigating an increasingly complex world. It's encouraging to see more Australians choosing to study teaching, supported by measures such as our paid teaching practicums, teaching scholarships and our stronger initial teacher education. These initiatives help ensure that more people can enter the profession, complete their training and stay, benefiting students and school communities alike.

The motion also recognises the importance of preventing and responding to bullying in schools. Of course, this is an issue that families and educators take seriously, and it's part of the reason we introduced the social media ban for under-16s. Many Hasluck schools already invest heavily in wellbeing teams, pastoral-care programs and inclusive school cultures, working hand in hand with parents and the community more broadly. The national coordination strengthens this work and ensures our schools are getting the support they need to keep students safe.

As the 2026 year unfolds, public schools across Hasluck will continue to nurture curiosity, resilience and ambition in our young people, right alongside those private educational institutions that are very much part of our fabric. Our support acknowledges the dedication of teachers, leaders and support staff; the trust of families; and a shared belief that every child deserves a fair go. When I visit schools—from Cyril Jackson, looking at their intensive English language centre; or Woodbridge Primary School and their extraordinary art exhibitions and dance programs; Guildford Grammar School, with their absolutely magnificent cohort of students, that are moving particularly into pathways around academia; to our Australian Islamic College at Henley Brook—I see we have got a variety and diversity of schools to support students' needs and their aspirations for the future.

Tom Venning (Grey, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We're here talking about Labor's motion on the Better and Fairer Schools Agreement. Well, I think it should be called the 'Better and Fairer Schools Agreement for Our Cities'. As the member for Monash rightly pointed out earlier, your postcode does impact your education outcomes, and that's felt no more than in country and outback South Australia.

In the electorate of Grey I have the most primary, middle and senior schools in the entire country—146 schools, to be exact. I'd like to thank the hundreds of teachers and community volunteers who support those schools each and every day. The school isn't just the teachers and the students that make it. It's the bus driver, it's those who run the canteen, it's those who take the kids to sports games on the weekend. So thank you for all that you do for your local communities.

There's also a huge gap in early childhood education in the regions. Again, the electorate of Grey has the worst access to child care in the entire country. We are at 150 out of 150. Only around two-thirds of families have access to early childhood education, to child care. The reality is that with Labor's inflation-driven cost-of-living crisis you need two incomes to raise a family. So if you're in a small town and you're a small-business owner and you're trying to grow your business, it is very difficult—near on impossible—to attract young people to your community. Indeed, young people leave because there is no access to child care and it forces a parent to stay at home.

It is the same with tertiary education. If you want to be a doctor, if you want to be an engineer—if you want to do anything other than nursing—you've got to go to Adelaide. We have one brilliant tertiary site in Whyalla, in the electorate of Grey, but of course Whyalla is a five-hour drive from Ceduna; it's a six-hour drive from Coober Pedy. Again, you've got to go to Adelaide for an education. That's why Grey has the fourth-lowest tertiary education outcomes in the entire country.

Getting back to child care, you might not know that it's state election time in South Australia. I should call Premier Malinauskas the mayor of Adelaide, because if you do live outside of Adelaide you appreciate that you live in the state of Adelaide, not the state of South Australia. We have the worst access to child care, and he's been out spruiking new centres. Well, fantastic if you live in Kadina, Quorn or Kimba, but what about those in Port Broughton, Crystal Brook, Tumby Bay, Cummins, Wudinna and Wilmington? There are so many communities in the electorate of Grey where there are gaps in child care. I'd like to thank the Regional Childcare Desert Advocacy Project and the 23 councils that are advocating for early childhood education in your communities.

Regional families in my electorate are being absolutely crushed by this Labor government's cost-of-living crisis. The financial pain isn't limited to just power bills, grocery bills, health costs and insurance premiums. The pain is being felt in the education of our children, from our littlest learners right through to our school leavers. The lack of support for our regional independent schools is tangible. These are not elite institutions. They are vital community hubs serving the bush. Yet under this government they are forced to pass on soaring costs. While inflation sits at about 3.8 per cent, costs for non-government schools have surged by 5.4 per cent. Why? It is because, unlike government schools, where taxpayers absorb the blow, independent schools must survive the market. When energy prices skyrocket, when insurance premiums rise and when this government piles on red tape, these schools have no choice but to ask families to pay more. Parents are ultimately paying the price for Labor's inflation. Families in regional Australia are making immense sacrifices to educate their children, yet they are being punished by a government that offers no transparency or relief.

A 2022 Mitchell Institute study confirmed this. It is causing parents to leave the workforce, and there are regional staff shortages. Beyond this, fresh analysis from the Parliamentary Library paints a devastating picture. In September 2025 more than 3,624 childcare services were charged above the fee cap, almost double the June 2022 figure of 1,889 services. The government's hourly rate cap sits at $14.63, yet more than 37 per cent of services are forced to charge more.

Rebekha Sharkie (Mayo, Centre Alliance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Grey. The time allotted for this debate has expired. The debate is adjourned and the resumption of the debate will be made in order of the day for the next sitting.