House of Representatives

Monday, 3 June 2013 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 27
moved on since then—or has it? Before my speech was
interrupted 10 weeks ago and then put off by
legislation that the government thought more
important, I was talking about education and how
devoid of detail the bill and the government's plans
were. The lack of detail remains disappointing—yet
typical of the big-talking, over-promising and underdelivering
Gillard government.
This Labor government like to talk about how they
are implementing Gonski, with their National Plan for
School Improvement. It sounds grand. It sounds
impressive. The name 'Gonski' is something like a
symbol that some see as a panacea for education. 'Just
say 'Gonski' and all will be good,' they say. Under this
Labor government our OECD standing in education
has been on a slide—but, again, just say 'Gonski' and
all will be good again! Gonski is therefore somewhat
messianic in how it is viewed.
I look now at the detail that is available. The
government claim they are implementing Gonski, but it
is not Gonski—nothing like it. If it were Gonski, where
is the $6.6 billion of new money each year for the next
six years that was required by Gonski? This is an
illusion by an over-promising and under-delivering
government, and the teachers and the principals in
every school across this country should not be taken in
by the charade. Over six years there should be more
than $36 billion extra for education. So this is therefore
not Gonski but the illusion I spoke of.
The budget papers indicate $2.8 billion of additional
money for the National Plan for School Improvement,
yet at the same time we can see in the coming years
redirections from other programs—$258.5 million out
of the National Partnership for Low Socio-economic
Status School Communities; $411.9 million out of
Empowering Local Schools; $405 million out of
literacy and numeracy; $665 million out of the Reward
for Great Teachers program; $203.2 million out of the
Reward for School Improvements program; and the
reduction of $1.182 billion in recurrent funding for
non-government schools when comparing parameters
under the Schools Assistance Act 2008. So this
represents a reduction of $325.1 million. A cut is what
this government stands for—way less than the $6.6
billion a year that Gonski requires. I would like to
highlight the fact that Minister Garrett has not refuted
the $325.1 million cut to other programs. For Western
Australia the reduction through redirections or just cuts
over the period out to financial year 2015-16 is $229.2
million less in federal funding. It really is a con, and it
is typical of a government that talks big but achieves
small. The only thing they are good at are grand
announcements coupled with cliches and spin lines. Of
course, people are on to it. I saw in The Australian
today that the Gillard government's favourite
catchword has been 'Gonski' for a long time and then it
was switched to the far less catchy 'national schools
CHAMBER
improvement plan'. We await what question time today
will bring from this government.
However, I was talking about Labor plans for the
next three years. The government's plan is to redirect
or cut existing spending so that they do not have to do
much of the hard work in the budget. All the big
money is out at 2018 and 2019, but of course nothing
like the $6 billion a year required under Gonski. But
the bigger money is beyond their time and beyond their
responsibility to find the money for it—again, all
promise, no delivery. Right now the federal
government has cut school funding and requires the
states to spend more. Labor promises to spend $9.8
billion on the National School Improvement Plan.
Almost all of that money comes in 2018-19 and before
that Labor delivers less money than now. Schools will
not see any of the promised new federal funding until
2017, which is two federal elections away. Not only
has school performance declined under this
government, but the government's performance on
education has also declined. The Labor government
does not understand that the key to making better
schools is better teachers, better teaching, higher
academic standards, more community engagement and
more principal autonomy.
The empty promises of this government will not
achieve this and neither will this legislation. For this
reason we are introducing an amendment to the bill
which looks at all aspects of the education system. We
understand that all children must have the opportunity
to have a good, quality education and that families
must have the right to choose a school that fits their
child. If parents wish to make a private contribution
towards the cost of their child's education they should
not be penalised for it. In an effort to fundraise and
encourage private investment, schools should not be
penalised either. This ties in with our belief that as
many decisions as possible should be made locally by
parents, communities, principals, teachers, schools and
school systems. Furthermore, schools, school sectors
and school systems must be accountable to their
community, families and students. When it comes to
funding, the coalition wants to ensure that every
Australian student must be entitled to a basic grant
from the Commonwealth government.
This country has had enough of this Labor
government's failures. Education standards have fallen
over the term of this Labor government and the way
ahead is through a different approach. One of the first
things we will do is to extend the current recurrent
funding model for both government and nongovernment
schools so that planning can continue
through funding certainty. Another two years of
existing funding arrangements will see indexation and
National Partnership funding continue which will see
that no school is worse off. Then we will negotiate and
work with the states and territories. This will ensure