Better and Fairer Schools (Funding and Reform) Bill 2024
Transcript
Ms WARE (Hughes) (16:36): I rise to speak about the Better and Fairer Schools (Funding Reform) Bill 2024, which deals with government funding of public schools. It is always a pleasure for me to talk about public education. I am very proudly the product of two public schools, South Cronulla primary school and St George Girls High School, and my children attended Gymea Bay Public School for their primary school education. I have some absolutely fantastic public schools in my electorate and I will refer to them shortly.
I think the starting point for this legislation is to go back and have a look at the background as to how we fund schools in Australia. They are jointly funded in this country through both state and territory governments and the Australian government. I think perhaps sometimes parents and others don't understand that. It is often thought of as simply a state issue, but the federal government has a very important role to play in public funding for government schools. Funding for schools is provided to the states and territories under the Constitution's sections 96 and 122. These allow the Commonwealth to set the relevant terms and conditions for the funding. Coming out of that enabling power within the Constitution is the Australian Education Act 2013 and the Australian Education Regulations, which impose additional requirements on states and territories as conditions for this financial assistance. They include, predominantly, a requirement to be party to intergovernmental arrangements on school education and to implement nationally agreed policy initiatives on school education.
What we have seen bring about this legislation is a system of national school reform agreements where each state and territory is required to have a bilateral agreement with the Australian government. Those agreements set out state-specific actions to improve student outcomes, including activities that may support particular student cohorts. Bilateral agreements also set out the minimum funding contribution that states and territories must meet as a condition of receiving Australian government school funding. So, basically, the Commonwealth says to a state, 'You must provide X per cent and then the federal government will kick in the remainder.' This is where the federal government and the education minister have reached a stalemate with the states. What we have seen happen following a few internal reviews—we're talking about a Labor government, and Labor governments love reviews, and so we've had a series of reviews since this government has been in power. Out of that we've had the Better and Fairer Schools Agreement. That proposes a new funding model. Then, following that, we have had agreement between the federal government and three states—Western Australia, the Northern Territory and, later on, Tasmania. But as of today Queensland, Victoria, South Australia and my home state of New South Wales have not yet signed up to the new funding arrangements. So there are a number of issues that need to be addressed there, and it shows that the education minister has, unfortunately, failed, to date, to secure the agreement of those other four states.
The Australian Education Union has also called for the Commonwealth to increase its share of funding to the states, which is currently at 20 per cent. The states are asking for 25 per cent, and the Australian Education Union—I don't normally stand here and support union positions, but I think the funding of our public schools is extremely important. The organisation Save Our Schools Australia has similarly criticising the bill and has said that funding should be further increased.
Parents that I speak to in my community are not so much worried about how much funding their schools are getting; they are worried about the quality of teaching within the schools and they're worried about the curriculum within the schools. This is something that is being addressed, particularly at a state level, in my home state. I am pleased with that because what we have seen for too many years is inquiry based learning. Instead of which, the New South Wales government—and I don't usually give the Minns government too much of a plug—has picked up on the reforms started under the former Liberal government, particularly the education minister, Sarah Mitchell. They are looking at now implementing evidence based teaching methods, such as explicit instruction. They are saying it must be mandated in every classroom.
I'll say that is a welcome inclusion. Teachers say to me quietly—because they are usually gagged in many circumstances by the current state government—that the inquiry based learning was a complete failure. Children, and younger children in particular, need to be taught facts, and then those facts need to be reinforced. Inquiry based learning is all well and good, but it does not work for five-, six- and eight-year-olds. That is something that is obviously looked at more in high school and later in life, at university or at VET.
It is absolutely critical, overall, that our education standards are lifted. Throughout the country, the NAPLAN results are telling us that one in three children—one-third of our children—are not meeting baseline standards in reading, writing and maths. I can tell you, as at 5.20 tomorrow, my children will have finished their secondary education, but the way they were taught maths, particularly in primary school, was a consistent frustration for me. Over the years, I have seen a real decline in the way we are teaching maths, and I think it starts with teachers at university not being properly trained as to how to teach maths. This has long-term impacts for us as a country. Maths is not about becoming a maths professor. Maths is about life skills. It's about being able to read the time. It's about being able to ensure that you are being paid correctly. It's about being able to ensure you budget correctly. They are very fundamental skills, fundamental reasoning and rational thinking that we need to do fair better at. 'Far better at'—I was just about to say don't start me on grammar and the way grammar is taught today, and I've just finished a sentence with 'at', which my grammar teacher from year 7 would be shaking and criticising me for.
The funding of education is very important and I am very pleased that the New South Wales government, for example, has started on the factual-based, instruction-based learning rather than the very vague inquiry-based learning that we have seen over many years. The education minister said that she is paring back a lot of the gobbledegook, to use a technical term—I like that, 'gobbledegook', from an education minister—and a lot of the nonsense that was in the school curriculum in New South Wales. She said new English and maths syllabuses are already being taught, and from kindergarten, for example, history is going to be taught. History includes being taught about the Holocaust in primary schools, and I think that, in view of recent events that we've seen in our country and overseas, the importance of that cannot be understated.
I have some fabulous public schools in my electorate, and I want to give a shoutout to those I have visited so far this year. Coming up to the end of the presentations, there will be far more. I congratulate Loftus Public School, which was one of the recipients of my fathering project. I also attended Loftus Public School for the Anzac Day commemorative service earlier this year. The Cook School that was featured on Four Corners is a school for behavioural difficulties, and I subsequently went out and met the fabulous team there. At Marton Public School I met with the leadership team and did a flag presentation. Jannali East Public School is another recipient of my fathering project award. At Illawong Public School I was invited to attend their Arts for Advocacy exhibition, where they advocated for various social projects through the arts. That was their stage 3, so years 5 and 6. I thank Sutherland Public School for the flags. I was at Jannali Public School for flags and at Illawong Public School again for education week. I was at the Bates Drive School, which is a school for—it used to be called handicapped—intellectually and physically disabled children, and we did a flag presentation there. The teachers and carers at Bates Drive School provide a very important service, so I thank them. We also went to Lucas Heights Community School, which is unusual in that it caters for students from kindergarten right through to year 12. They have started a wellness hub, and particularly an Indigenous wellness hub, so they are also to be congratulated. I met with their leadership team, and I think the future around Lucas Heights is in good hands based on the quality of the leaders that I met there. I thank Holsworthy High School as well—I was privileged to attend their year 12 graduation ceremony and spoke to a couple of the students about what they are planning to do post high school. That was a very special occasion as well.
We really do need to do a lot better with funding of our public schools and I call on the federal education minister to negotiate with the four states—including New South Wales—to reach that agreement as soon as possible.
I call on the minister to also look at perhaps tying future grants to curriculum changes and look at a far more sensible curriculum that does not place such a heavy burden on a lot of our teachers and that will empower our students throughout the country and ensure that they lift their overall NAPLAN standards. When we fail to teach our children literacy and numeracy, it results in the inevitable disengagement with the education system, dysfunction and youth crime. I can't imagine the frustration of not being able to read and participate in society, and that is what occurs if our students do not have a sound education system.
On that note, I largely commend this bill, but the minister really does need to do a lot more negotiating with the states, and there are some other changes—as I have highlighted—that he could be considering.