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

Before the Federation Chamber considers the first portfolio, I would like to remind all members of the purpose of the consideration in detail stage and outline the way that it is expected to proceed. On Thursday 28 May, the House agreed to a resolution setting the order and timing for the consideration of portfolios. Consideration in detail is a debate, and the call will be alternated between government and non-government members, as always. Even though this debate sometimes takes the format of questions and answers, this is not question time.

Ministers and government backbench members will both be considered as speakers for the government's turn and should bear this in mind when they seek the call. Members are required to be relevant to the portfolio being examined, but there is no requirement for direct relevance to any questions asked. Each minister and member will have up to five minutes to speak each time they are called, but they may wish to speak for a shorter time. Ministers may wish to speak first and make an introductory statement when debate on their portfolio begins, but that is a matter for them to decide. The terms of the resolution provide dates and times after which the questions on each portfolio will be put if debate does not conclude earlier. To avoid confusion when these times are reached, a member who is speaking will be allowed to continue their remarks, but chairs are obligated to put the question immediately at the conclusion of that member's speech, and no further debate will be permitted. Finally, I remind advisers to members and ministers that the roped off gallery areas may be accessed through the doors adjacent to the galleries only, not through the doors reserved for members, and they must not intrude onto the floor of the Federation Chamber at any time or seek the attention of a member or minister by calling out.

Education Portfolio

Proposed expenditure, $2,799,424,000

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

In 14 years of teaching, I never once met a child who dreamed of failing. I never met a student who wanted to struggle with reading or a young person who genuinely aspired to be unemployed. I met students with enormous potential, and here is the truth I witnessed in every classroom I've ever stood in: talent is universal, but opportunity is not. I've always believed that education is one of the most powerful things the government can invest in but, for too long, governments have treated education as a collection of separate systems—child care over there, schools over here, TAFE somewhere else if it's being supported at all and universities somewhere else again.

What I'm proud of is that this government has taken a different approach. We've recognised that education is not something that happens for a few years at the beginning of a person's life. Education is a lifelong journey. For perhaps the first time in Australia's history, we're investing right across that journey, and that's a big reform agenda. It is ambitious. We know that some of the most important learning a child will ever do happens in the first five years. They are absolutely integral. That's why we're building a universal early education system. Through our three-day guarantee, every child can access three days of subsidised early childhood education and care every week. A local Bass family recently told me that this policy has saved them hundreds of dollars a week. That is the difference that affordable childcare can make. We've also invested in the workforce through a 15 per cent pay rise for early childhood educators, and we're strengthening safety and accountability across the sector.

But that opportunity cannot stop when that kid leaves child care and first walks through the school gates, so we're delivering the biggest new investment in Australian public education ever. For too long public schools were left short of the funding they needed. I remember working in Ramingining, a remote community in Arnhem Land, during a period when remote public schools were losing funding dramatically. I bought puzzles. I bought learning resources to help fill the classroom. But it was not just those hands-on manipulatives and resources that teachers desperately needed. It was the assistant teachers who spoke Yolngu Matha and helped us to better support our students and understand them. It was access to psychologists, speech and occupational therapists so we could actually meet those needs. It was funding for breakfast, recess and lunch. It was staff to prepare those meals. It was being able to fly in an electrician and a plumber when things broke down, because, even though our principal tried her very best, you can't solve every infrastructure problem in a remote community with a wrench and a determined attitude.

None of these are luxuries. They're the basic building blocks of a quality education, and that's what this money is actually for. It's not just a line in a budget. It's the assistant teacher who can speak a child's language, the therapist who can support a child who's falling behind and that meal that can help a kid focus in class. This is why our Better and Fairer Schools Agreement matters. Nationally, it's an additional $20 billion for public schools over the next decade.

The same principle will be applied beyond school. We know that too many Australians have often been told that university was available to them but they graduated carrying a debt that continued to grow year after year. We've taken action on that. More than 20 per cent has been taken off our debt, which has benefited 10,500 people in Bass, which is huge. We've made the repayments fairer and we're supporting students undertaking placements in teaching nursing, midwifery and social work through the prac placement. I had people actually choosing between completing their study and paying the bills, and that's not OK.

We have not forgotten regional Australia. We've not forgotten regional students. Challenge has never been the problem for them; it's been access, distance and cost. That's why the study hubs are being bringing tertiary education closer to where people live. We're investing in those regional pathways. This semester our government has started end-to-end medical training right in the heart of Launceston for the first time ever, and I've met some of the students undertaking this course. One conversation has stayed with me. A student told me that if this opportunity did not exist in Launceston, they never would have applied to study medicine. They didn't lack the ambition, they didn't lack the ability, it was simply that they couldn't afford to leave home. So think about that. That's a future doctor, a talented young person with skills and determination who will serve our community long term who we could have lost due to geography and cost. Instead, they're studying medicine in Northern Tasmania, and they want to stay there. We are making sure an individual's future is determined by their potential and not their postcode. A person's ambition should not be limited by cost or by lack of educational opportunities, because when we invest in education we invest in people. And when we invest in people, we're investing in Australia's future.

Julian Leeser (Berowra, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Indigenous Australians) | Link to this | Hansard source

This is a budget of broken promises and broken dreams. For the last six months the government has been congratulating itself for reaching a schools funding agreement with every state, but in Victoria the spin doesn't match the facts. This government has been constantly gaslighting.

When the Prime Minister stood up in March last year and said every jurisdiction was on track to receive an increase in school funding and to receive the full school resourcing standard, it simply wasn't true. The proof is publicly available. To get an increase in funding, what you need is a document called a bilateral agreement between the Commonwealth and the relevant state. In March last year, there was no bilateral agreement with Western Australia and there was no bilateral agreement with Victoria. It was a falsehood. And, as of today, there is still no plan for an increase in Victoria. The best they can manage is a stopgap with no increases that terminates at the end of this year. You can't believe the Albanese government on taxes, and you can't believe them on school funding either.

Thanks to the Allan and Albanese Labor governments, Victorian government schools have the lowest funding of any state in the entire country. Compared to New South Wales in this year alone, Victorian high schools and public schools are short-changed by $860 per student for every single one of the 667,000 Victorian public school students. Compared to South Australia, it's $900 less per student. And compared to Tasmania, it's $1,740 less per student. Maybe if Labor hadn't funded $15 billion of taxpayers money to the crooks and crims at the CFMEU, kids in Victoria would have a better chance for an education, but it's now Victoria's school children who suffer the consequences. So my questions to the minister are: Are you going to sign a bilateral agreement on school funding with the Allan government? What date will it be signed? Why have you left such an agreement until the eve of the Victorian election? And given the state of the Victorian Labor budget and the fact there is no specific allocation for this funding in the federal budget, don't the Victorian public have a right to be cynical about any agreement that is signed between the Albanese and Allan Labor governments?

This budget sets up a non-government-school funding cliff beyond 2029. For the millions of Australians who send their children to Catholic and independent schools, who have made genuine financial sacrifices, they deserve certainty beyond the forward estimates, and yet there is none. The non-government sector now educates 40 per cent of Australian students. According to an analysis by the AEC Group, independent schools save the Australian taxpayer an estimated $12½ billion in expenditure through recurrent education and capital costs.

Under Labor, education costs have risen by 21 per cent. The government has failed to keep downward pressure on the drivers that increase out-of-pocket expenses for families—energy prices, insurance premiums, land and capital costs, regulatory complexity, taxes and all the other things that make it more expensive to deliver a high-quality education that parents ultimately pay for. In government schools, increased costs are borne by the taxpayer, but in non-government schools those increased costs are borne by parents in higher fees.

This government sees independent schools as elite. We know differently. We know independent schools educate more than 22,000 Aboriginal students, more than 187,000 students with disability and keep fees, on average, across the sector at just $6,060 a year. And yet this budget provides no guarantee, no commitment, no clarity about what will happen after 2029. School funding decisions should not punish parents for exercising choice. They should support affordability, protect diversity and make sure funding follows the student. So, Minister, will you guarantee that non-government schools will receive funding that supports parental choice and ongoing affordability beyond 2029?

The third area I want to talk about is the $2.2 billion research funding cut, which is short-changing our researchers at a critical time. This budget rips $2.2 billion out of research over the next 10 years, through cuts to Australia's Economic Accelerator. That's devastating for our universities, but, worse, it's part of a pattern. In 2023 Labor ripped $46.2 million out of the accelerator through a cash grab hidden in MYEFO. In 2025 they did it again, taking a further $76 million from research. Now they're taking a further $800 million over the forwards and $2.2 billion over the decade. On top of that, the government has abolished the Trailblazer Universities Program. That was worth $86 million this year, intended to fast-track research and boost commercialisation. And they've taken $67 million out of the National Environmental Science Program.

Research drives innovation, which drives productivity, and we desperately need productivity at this time. Just today, we've seen reports of Australian universities slipping in world rankings. We now have no universities in the top 50 in the world. My final question is: Minister, why are you ripping $2.2 billion out of research at this absolutely critical time for Australia?

Sarah Witty (Melbourne, Australian Labor Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to support a budget that continues the Albanese Labor government's work to build a better and fairer education system. From early childhood education right through to schools, TAFE and university, this budget is about opening doors for opportunity.

When I was asked to run for the seat of Melbourne, I said yes because as a foster carer I met too many children who, through no fault of their own, had faced unbelievable challenges. I wanted to step up and do everything I could to help ensure every child gets the best possible start in life, and I know education is the key. It opens doors, builds confidence, sparks curiosity and creates opportunity. It gives children the tools to thrive and backs the teachers and educators who work every day to help young Australians reach their full potential.

I believe every child deserves a chance to dream big, succeed and build a bright future, and a strong education is where that journey begins. That is the goal of this budget—a quality, affordable and safe early childhood education and care system, full and fair funding for public schools and a fairer higher education system, including cutting student debt by 20 per cent and making repayments fairer.

In early childhood education and care we are delivering real reform. Our cheaper child care policy is already providing cost-of-living relief for more than one million Australian families. We have also replaced the activity test with the three-day guarantee, making sure every child can access at least three days of subsidised early education and care per week. The government is also backing early childhood educators, with a 15 per cent pay rise tied to limits on fee increases for families. We are strengthening safety through a $226 million child safety package, including mandatory child safety training, a national early childhood worker register and more unannounced compliance visits, with stronger powers to cut funding from services that are not meeting safety standards. Affordable, safe, high-quality—this is the early education system this government is building.

In schools, the Albanese Labor government is delivering full and fair funding for public schools. When we came to government, no public school outside the ACT was fully funded. That was not good enough, so this government is fixing it. Through the Better and Fairer Schools Agreement, we are putting every public school on a pathway to full funding. That means an additional $20 billion for public schools over the next 10 years and $50 billion in the decade after that. For Victorian public schools, it means an extra $3.5 billion over the next 10 years. That funding is tied to reforms that matter in classrooms: more individualised support, more mental health support and more support to attract and retain teachers. That is what full and fair funding will do. It will help students catch up, keep up and finish school. It will back the teachers doing the work. It will strengthen the schools at the heart of our community and in higher education.

This government is delivering reform that matters. Melbourne has the highest number of people with student loans of any electorate in the country. Around 36,000 people in Melbourne are carrying student loan debt. That is why the government's 20 per cent student debt cut matters. The first bill passed by this parliament wiped more than $16 billion in student debt for more than 3.2 million Australians, and we have made repayments fairer.

For someone earning $70,000, repayments will fall from $1,750 a year to about $450. That's about $1,300 less each year. It is also why the Commonwealth prac payment matters. It supports about 68,000 eligible teaching, nursing, midwifery and social work students while they complete compulsory placements. Because education should open doors, not push people to breaking point. This budget delivers a better and fairer education system. From early learning to public schools, to TAFE and universities, it's a system that gives children the best start, that opens the door for opportunity and that backs students, teachers, educators and families. That is what Labor governments do, and I am proud to support this budget.

Sam Birrell (Nicholls, National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Regional Health) | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the government's 2026-27 budget and what it means for education, which is the foundation of productivity, opportunity and long-term prosperity in this country. For all the slogans about fairness and opportunity, what this budget delivers is not real reform but restraint on aspiration. That's clear in many aspects of the budget, but it's clear in education as well. The government has framed this budget as one that builds a better, fairer and more equitable education system. But when you look beyond the rhetoric you see a patchwork of modest initiatives, increased regulation and missed opportunities for real reform. It's not transformational; it's a holding pattern.

Let me start with schools. There are some targeted investments—in STEM programs, student wellbeing and support for disadvantaged students in particular—but alongside that we see a strong emphasis on compliance and integrity measures that ensure funding is monitored and enforced more tightly. Accountability matters, and every dollar should be spent well, but schools across regional Australia are telling us something different. They don't need more bureaucracy; they need more support. Principals and teachers are already under enormous pressure, and this budget risks adding to that burden without addressing the core issues of workforce shortages, classroom disruption and declining student outcomes. Also, where is the finalised agreement between the federal government and the Victorian government that delivers full funding? What's the roadblock? The federal government might have a better government to deal with earlier next year.

On early childhood, the government continues its push towards a more universal system, with additional inclusion, funding and workforce measures, and that direction is important. We support access and participation, but we also support parental choice, and again this budget lacks a defining reform. It continues some of the trends that are underway, but rather than delivering a clear step change in affordability, workforce and sustainability it delivers more of the same, and in too many areas in regional Australia there is still no child care available. But it's in higher education where the government's lack of ambition is most evident. Stakeholders across the sector expected real reform, in particular, following the universities accord. Instead what we got was continuity, and the sector is telling us that funding and policy settings are simply not keeping pace with expectations or economic need. Universities are being asked to do more with tighter margins under growing regulatory pressure.

At the same time we're seeing increasing oversight, more powers for regulators, new levies to fund oversight bodies and growing compliance requirements on institution. There are more rules and more scrutiny, but there's not enough support. I ask this question, and the member for Berowra mentioned it in his contribution: are our universities going forward or backward? In skills, productivity and economy, the government tells us that productivity is a defining challenge for the Australian economy, and they are right. But productivity starts with skills, and it starts with education. While this budget includes measures to support skills recognition and workforce participation, it stops short of making the level of investment needed to drive long-term economic growth. The sector itself has made this clear. If we want a more productive economy we should invest more, not less, in the institutions that build it, and those institutions need to be better. We need quality, not just free quantity.

What ties this together is a simple point. At a time when classrooms are under pressure, teachers are leaving the profession, universities are struggling with funding certainty and regional students face persistent barriers, the government chose to manage the system rather than fix it. Education should be at the centre of any serious plan for Australia's future. It should be focused on long-term outcomes, not short-term savings. If we are serious about fairness and if we are serious about opportunity not just for the young people in this country but for the country's economic future itself and if we are serious about productivity then we cannot afford to underinvest in education.

David Moncrieff (Hughes, Australian Labor Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

Education changes lives every single day. It enables people from all walks of society to live the lives that they want and follow the dreams that can seem unthinkable without it. In my community in southern Sydney, we see it changing lives each day—not just in English and maths but across a wide range of areas important to development of young lives. At the end of last year, I had the opportunity to see Alfords Point Public School perform Seussical. Not just the music class but the whole school, from kindergarten to six, were involved in performing this amazing piece. It's an opportunity they wouldn't have had without access to the incredible public schools we have in southern Sydney.

We know that education is changing lives each day in southern Sydney for the better, and that's why this government is ensuring that education in my community is secured for the future. Almost one in two young people have a university degree today, but not everywhere—not in our outer suburbs. For those living in the outskirts of Sydney, university can feel like something that happens somewhere else. It's how I felt when I finished year 12 as well, and I was very fortunate to have been able to attend a university campus in my community, the southern Sydney, now Sutherland, campus of the University of Wollongong. For me, access to that campus was life changing. I used to walk to university at the time, when I didn't have access to a car and couldn't drive. It took me about an hour and a half. It was a great way to start the day, and I'd catch the bus home.

This life-changing access is why Minister Clare and I opened the Macquarie Fields university suburban study hub last year. It was to bring university closer to the young people in our community, because access to education can only change lives if it's accessible. We know that suburban university study hubs make university more accessible. The evidence is they increase the number of people going to uni in areas where they're established. We are now putting these university study hubs in places like Macquarie Fields, bringing university closer to where people live.

Just this week, Minister Clare and I got to meet some of the young people of south-western Sydney for whom we're building these opportunities. We got to see up close Ingleburn High's implementation of the explicit direct instruction framework, which means they clearly tell students what they are learning, why it is important and how to do it step by step. Explicit teaching helps students understand new ideas by breaking them into smaller parts. We got to see students going from broad concept to complex themes in only a few minutes, after repetition and checking for understanding before moving on. It's learning that is student centred and practical delivered at an educational institution that is committed to equity, inclusivity and access and supportive of diverse learning styles and needs.

Incredible education facilities like this are why the 2026-27 budget is delivering full and fair funding for public schools, with an additional $20 billion in funding over the next 10 years and $50 billion in the decade after that. It's part of our continuation of the government's significant reform agenda, which also includes building a quality, affordable and safe early childhood education and care system; cutting student debt by 20 per cent for three million Australians; and making the repayment system fairer.

We're also delivering vital school infrastructure upgrades, including approximately $1.7 million in my electorate of Hughes. That includes $1.5 million to upgrade the school hall at James Meehan High School in Macquarie Fields and $30,000 for building upgrades to support the school breakfast club at Sackville Street Public School. We on this side believe not only that education should be accessible where you live but that it shouldn't put you into lifelong debt. There are 18,226 HELP debtors in Hughes, with about 589 individuals with VET student loans. That's why we've cut student debt by 20 per cent. Our government not only believes in the power of education but we're also acting on it because we believe that young people should be given opportunities to shine and to thrive no matter where they live.

Angie Bell (Moncrieff, Liberal National Party, Shadow Minister for Youth) | Link to this | Hansard source

I begin by thanking the incredible educators, carers, centre directors and all of the support staff working in early childhood education and care across Australia because the work that you do is invaluable. Every day, you help educate and nurture our youngest, littlest learners, preparing them for school, for learning and, of course, for life. You also provide the support that enables parents to participate in the workforce and support their families. Thank you for the enormous contribution that you make to our communities.

This budget was Labor's chance to show Australian families they understood the pressure that they are under—and, bah bow, they failed. The Prime Minister repeatedly told Australians that universal child care would be his 'defining reform'. Remember, 'My word is my bond.' He said it during the election campaign, he said it in the leader's debates, and he staked his place in history on it. But, if this budget is the result, Australian families, I think, deserve a full refund. Parents have now been warned of substantial increases in out-of-pocket childcare costs due to expired fee caps, unfunded educator wage increases—I'll get back to that—and Labor's broader cost-of-living crisis.

Early childhood educators deserve to be fairly paid, but, after Labor failed to provide ongoing funding certainty following previous wage increases, providers are now facing permanent cost pressures. At the same time, federal fee caps that limited how much centres could increase fees by are, well, expiring. It was a booby trap that Labor set for us, but they're in government again now, and they have to deal with it, allowing providers to raise their base rates.

Now, families are being left to pick up the bill. This is gross mismanagement in the early childhood education and care sector by the Labor government. Since Labor was elected, Australians have suffered the biggest fall in living standards of any comparable developed nation according to the OECD data. The data does not lie. This country has gone backwards by at least 10 per cent. It is not childcare costs hurting families, it is everything: gas is up by 41 per cent; electricity, 37 per cent; insurance, 42 per cent; rents, 23 per cent; food, 17 per cent; and health, 17 per cent. Families are under pressure. This government just doesn't get it; they just keep spending. Childcare costs are up 14 per cent since Labor came to power. Child care is not cheaper, Mr Albanese. The latest ABS data shows that childcare costs rose 9.1 per cent in the past year alone, almost double the rate of inflation. Don't listen when you hear that child care is cheaper, because you know, as a parent, that it's not. The Prime Minister promised cheaper child care, instead, families are paying more than ever.

This is the cost of Labor. If you vote for them once—maybe you voted for them twice—you're going to pay for it for 10 or 20 years. That's what happens, and you're feeling it in grocery runs, in power bills and in every time a family drops their child at care and wonders how they're going to make it work. Why do almost 40 per cent of childcare services now charge above the hourly rate cap, Minister for Education? When do the families pay the full difference out of pocket? Labor's failure costs families dearly. The average full-time childcare place costs around $36,000 a year before the subsidy. It's comparable to elite private school fees. Meanwhile, the childcare subsidy is projected to reach more than $21 billion by 2029-30, which is up from $15.76 billion just last year.

Billions are flowing into a system still failing on affordability, still failing on flexibility, and, in too many parts of regional Australia, failing on accessibility. Costs are up, the subsidy bill is up—

Government Members:

Government members interjecting—

Angie Bell (Moncrieff, Liberal National Party, Shadow Minister for Youth) | Link to this | Hansard source

I'll take that interjection—that little giggle—from over there because this is not funny for regional families. It is a system in serious trouble, and Labor has failed on the worker retention payment because that allowed that to fall off a cliff. Special accounts payments sit at $1.08 billion in 2026-27. They're nothing across the forward estimates. I see members are turning their backs and looking the other way because they're so embarrassed that they've messed it up for Australian families. It is Australian families who will pay the price for Labor's gross mismanagement of the early childhood education and care sector. Either way, families pay.

This debate is about a fundamental difference in values. Labor believes that the government knows best, that big, unionised labour workforces are the answer to Australia's woes and that out-of-control spending is the answer to Labor staying in government. Well, they're wrong, and we reject that entirely.

Julian Hill (Bruce, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Citizenship, Customs and Multicultural Affairs) | Link to this | Hansard source

Seven out of 10 for performance art. There were a few questions I was actually looking forward to responding to, but unfortunately the opposition chose to call a bunch of silly divisions and has eaten into the time, so we've run out of time.

Proposed expenditure agreed to.