Slade Brockman (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on today's MPI. I notice we once again have an MPI from those opposite in which they are attempting to cast themselves as having a positive agenda, when all they really want to do is score political points in this place. Series of falsehoods have been trotted out again and again because those opposite think that, if you say something often enough, it will become true. Well, in actual fact, it won't become true, and we've got plenty of evidence to the contrary.

There is record funding for schools. Everybody in this place knows that's the case. There's record funding for government schools, record funding for independent schools and record funding for Catholic schools. There is record funding for all schools. Those opposite trying to pretend, based on their own false assumptions about future projections, that there has been a cut is just nonsense. This is the same Labor Party who said, 'We're going to deliver a surplus next year.' There was a deficit. They said, 'We're going to deliver a surplus the year after that.' There was a deficit. It's the same Labor government that could never balance the books. It's the same set of figures that we inherited and that we've spent the last five years cleaning up.

As a fellow Western Australian, Mr Acting Deputy President Dean Smith, you would know some of the evidence from our own home state of WA, where we have, over the last couple of years, seen a change of government from Liberal to Labor. Education is, of course, one of those areas where there is some shared responsibility. Under the Liberal government in Western Australia, which sadly did lose the last election, there was record funding for schools. In fact, the Western Australian school system was the best resourced school system of any state in the country. Western Australian teachers were the highest paid in the country. Principals were the highest paid in the country. Communities had more say in how their schools were run and principals had more say in how their schools were run.

So we have an on-the-ground record of Liberal Party investment in schools. But what did the Labor Party do when they came to power in WA? They targeted the weakest, most vulnerable parts of the education sector. They cut funding to Morawa agricultural college—Morawa residential college, an agricultural school in regional Western Australia that serviced the local farming communities with a residential school system that supported Aboriginal communities with residential school places. It was a vital part of that community and they cut it. A grassroots community campaign over months and months eventually, through the support of this government, managed to get the Labor government in Western Australia to revoke that appalling decision to close down Morawa residential college.

What else did they try to do? They tried to cut School of the Air. What more iconic Australian educational institution could there be than School of the Air? But the Labor Party tried to cut it. It was an appalling act that left a relatively small number of students, but a very vulnerable and physically and, sometimes, technologically isolated group of students, vulnerable to a great deal of uncertainty as to their future schooling requirements.

So I say that this government is proud to stand on its record of choice and affordability in education. We are providing an extra $37.6 billion to schools in the school funding package. That means that funding for each student will grow, on average, by 62 per cent. Funding for state schools will grow by 101 per cent and funding for non-state schools will grow by 70 per cent over the life of the package. The package is sector-blind, and it will deliver choice and affordability to parents and students. It will allow schools to plan for the future, giving certainty to teachers and principals.

The government is providing a record $309 billion investment in recurrent funding to all Australian schools from 2018 to 2029. The government's spending is growing fastest for state schools, at around 6.3 per cent per student each year from 2019 to 2023. Compare this to per student growth of 5.2 per cent in the non-government sector. By 2027, students with the same needs in the same sector will attract the same level of support from the Commonwealth, regardless of the state or territory where they live, their background or the choice of school their parents made. This funding is needs based and is designed to get the best results for students, parents and teachers.

All we do in this place—all the positive we do, such as the record funding for schools which this government is delivering—is based on one thing, and that is making sure the Australian economy is performing as well as it can. Without the Australian economy performing well, we do not have the tax revenue we need to fund schools, to fund the NDIS or to fund all those things that the Australian people think are worthwhile. That is where this government has excelled.

The Australian economy is growing at 3.4 per cent in the latest figures, passing market expectations. There have been 27 years of consecutive growth—27 years of consecutive economic growth!—and it's the highest growth rate since 2012, and that was during the height of the mining boom. This is what allows the government to deliver in terms of dividends for schools, for health care and for all those areas, such as the NDIS, which I talked about. This creates the society that we all enjoy living in.

On the education side, the real needs based funding that is being provided grows; it grows consistently and it grows over the decade to come. Those opposite try to pretend that the growth isn't there, or want to take their figures from a different base. But the fact that all Australians need to understand is that the funding will grow from $17.5 billion in 2017 to $31.9 billion in 2029. This is real; this is significant. This represents a step-change for the education sector that provides the needs based funding model, where students who need support get the support, and will see investment in all parts of the school sector growing over the decade to come.