Kim Carr (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister Assisting the Leader for Science) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answers given by the Minister for Human Services (Senator Payne) and Minister for Employment (Senator Abetz) to questions without notice asked by Senators Carr and Dastyari and the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate (Senator Wong) today relating to schools funding.

Today we heard further attempts by this government to explain its backflips on the schools-funding regime, a funding regime which is in complete contrast to what the government said, prior to the election, that it would have. Prior to the election, we were told that there would be no gap between Labor and Liberal when it came to schools funding. Since the election, we have had four separate iterations of the government's position. But nothing can take away from the fact that Labor's program was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to secure genuine schools-funding reform for the 3½ million Australian students currently in schools and for subsequent generations. Labor's program involved a $14.5 billion contribution, of which $9.4 billion would come from the Commonwealth. What we have heard proposed from this new government is a fraction of that amount of money. Less than a third of that amount of money is being proposed.

Under Labor's requirements, there would be conditions applied to the states to ensure that they would not do what they have done for generations, which is to shift costs to the Commonwealth. Labor's conditions would prevent that happening. Under the Labor government's program there was a requirement for three per cent indexation on the co-contributions, whereby, for every dollar the states put in—and they had to actually put extra money in—$2 would be put in from the Commonwealth. We also saw under Labor's program a commitment to a new system of needs based funding, in which money would flow to those most in need: the disabled, the Indigenous, students from working-class and poorer backgrounds, those with limited education, those in remote areas and those who, as a result of no circumstances other than their postcode, were suffering quite massive disadvantage. All of those things this government has walked away from.

Yesterday we heard the Minister for Education say—and this is reflected in the answers given today—that there would not be conditions applied to Western Australia, Queensland and the Northern Territory and, 'We would expect the signatory states to keep the promises they've made.' They would expect! What generosity of spirit! We have heard today about grown-ups. We know the history of education funding in the Commonwealth of Australia. We know the long-established pattern of cost-shifting and the way in which the states have taken money away while at the same time accepted additional money from the Commonwealth. What Mr Pyne said yesterday was that they would expect the states to keep their promises, 'but at the end of the day that is a matter for those sovereign jurisdictions'. So there again we have a situation where this government has walked away from its pre-election commitment, to ensure that there is additional funding provided by the states—not just by the Commonwealth but by the states as well. What we know is very clear, and Senator Abetz has reinforced this point today: there is no way, under this government's new arrangements, that there can be any guarantee that schools will not be worse off. That is crystal clear and it is a broken promise.

We heard much about the South Australian government today. What we do not get told is that the South Australian department of education and schools will increase their funding by $1.87 billion over the next five years. That is a direct result of the agreements that were entered into with the Commonwealth Labor government to ensure increased expenditure by the state government in South Australia. There is nothing that can be construed from any statements that have been made by the education minister today about anything that the South Australian government is doing which will have any negative impact on schools, on teacher numbers or on services, yet we heard this wild allegation being put by Mr Pyne that somehow or other the government in South Australia has walked away from its commitments under the terms of the Better Schools program.

What we have is a coherent package of reform proposed by Labor and a gutting of that program by this government: only one-third of the money delivered, walking away from the equity provisions, walking away from the governance provisions. There is no doubt whatsoever that this is a government that cannot keep its word. This is a government that has reneged on its commitments to the Australian people. (Time expired)