Page 1709 - Week 06 - Wednesday, 8 May 2013
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closing statement to be very clear with the Canberra community on their commitment to the position as outlined in Gonski and their position on needs-based funding. This is a chance for them to make that commitment and to make a clear public statement that the principles of Gonski are right—and that is, to make sure that there is a minimum standard applied to every student, regardless of where they live or what school they go to.
As the Chief Minister has also indicated, by all their actions and commentary, they are not supporters of equitable and needs-based funding. I ask Mr Doszpot, as the shadow minister for education, to make a very clear statement today on their position on the Gonski review. Are they supportive of it and all of its intent or are they not supportive of it? The Premier of New South Wales is clearly a supporter of the Gonski principles, and he has signed up for it. There is a chance today for either Mr Hanson, when he stands, or for Mr Doszpot, when he closes the debate, to make their position very clear.
What the Canberra Liberals fail to understand or would admit, it would seem, is that the ACT is already a high performing jurisdiction—indeed, performing by some measures in the top five or 10 in the world. We are so high performing because we have continually invested in education funding. Mr Doszpot made comment on funding. Recurrent funding for public school education over the last 11 years has increased by $223 million, or around 83 per cent per capita. Over the same period, recurrent funding for non-government schools federally and in the ACT was over $111 million, or an increase of over 80 per cent per capita. We have invested significantly and strongly in our education system here in the ACT. Unlike the Liberal state colleagues of those opposite, we have continued to invest in our system. This means that we have a very high starting point for these negotiations because, as a responsible government, we have not sabotaged our education system.
Mr Hanson interjected yesterday about the great deals of New South Wales, but I think he needs to think about what that means. Personally, I find it disappointing that the commonwealth funding is, indeed, replacing the funding and resources that Barry O’Farrell has ripped out of the public education system since they took government in New South Wales. But that is not the case here in the ACT. It is no coincidence that we have had a stable Labor government here for more than a decade. It says a lot about the difference between Labor and Liberal values.
However, this reform is much larger than simply funding; this reform is about making some fundamental changes nationally about how we as a country improve all schools to provide a world-leading education for every Australian, regardless of where they live or who they are. The national education reform is underpinned by the national plan for school improvement. As the ACT reaches agreement on participating in the reform, the national plan will become a central plank in the government’s ongoing efforts to improve student outcomes and continue to deliver an excellent education system.
The national plan will focus efforts on reforms that build upon areas of existing investment in the ACT, including quality teaching, quality learning, empowered school leadership, meeting student need and transparency and accountability. This
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