School Funding

Ms WORTLEY (Torrens) (14:29): My question is to the Minister for Education and Child Development. What were the outcomes of the recent Education Council meeting in relation to school funding?

The Hon. S.E. CLOSE (Port Adelaide—Minister for Education and Child Development, Minister for the Public Sector) (14:29): Well, not as good as I would like them to be, is the short answer. Last Friday we had the ministerial council meeting for education ministers around the country, and it was the first one that I have had face to face in that forum with this portfolio. There was a strong and very honest discussion around the table about the need for Gonski funding to be maintained for years 5 and 6. Obviously in South Australia we have committed to our share of the bargain. We have committed to the full six years of Gonski funding.

In our state we are facing losing what we had expected to receive, which is about $335 million, which is almost $1,300 per student in South Australia to give some sense of scale. Obviously the importance of Gonski funding is not that it is evenly spread across all students but it is aimed at remedying disadvantage in our school system. So, when we deny Gonski funding, we are not just denying the next generation, we are not just denying those people as people but as future workers, earners, taxpayers. We are not only denying them, in general, the finances that the system deserves, but we are specifically denying the students in need what they need to remedy the circumstances that they are in in order to get an education to make a difference to their lives, and that is why we fight so hard for it and that is why every state in Australia is concerned about the future of school funding.

At the meeting what we were given was an assurance that there would be another four-year round. There was the view that these always happen in four years and it will have a negotiation. That is manifestly inadequate for this state. As a country, we went through a long period to work out what the best way to fund schools was through the Gonski report, through the debates that occurred after that. It took a long time and it was worth doing because it was worth building a consensus of the view that this is how you should fund education.

Unfortunately, although we were given to believe by the Abbott Liberal Party as they were coming into office, as they were campaigning to become the government, that they would be in lockstep with Labor, that they would fulfil their commitments, that almost immediately changed to being only for the first four years. If you ask what was the outcome, the outcome was that we continue to stand up for South Australia, we continue to stand up for the school system and, in particular, we continue to stand up for the children in need.