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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2012-05-30 Daily Xml
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LITERACY AND NUMERACY

Mr PISONI (Unley) (14:46): My question is to the Minister for Education and Child Development. Was it a mistake for the Premier to cut $8.1 million in numeracy and literacy funding from his first budget as education minister? Since 2008—

The SPEAKER: Order! Member for Unley, there is a point of order, and I think it is about the wording of the question, again.

The Hon. P.F. CONLON: Madam Speaker, I believe it is an assertion to say that that money was cut from literacy—

Mr Pisoni: It's in the budget, Patrick.

The SPEAKER: Order!

Mr Pisoni: If you let me explain it—

The SPEAKER: Order!

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. P.F. CONLON: Like questions, just require them to be orderly. I ask whether the question contained argument. I merely point out that it is not open to the opposition to complain about debate if their questions contain argument.

The SPEAKER: Thank you. I will allow the member to continue his explanation.

Mr PISONI: Thank you, Madam Speaker. Since 2008 South Australia has returned worsening NAPLAN results each year, and in the last year did not achieve the national average in any of the 20 categories. The COAG Reform Council report released today (which the minister spoke of earlier) reports that, even with targeted federal funding, South Australia failed to make any improvements—

The SPEAKER: Thank you.

Mr PISONI: —in nine out of 20 targets across all age levels.

The SPEAKER: Member for Unley, you can sit down. I do not see how that explanation covers the question, but the minister may choose to answer the question.

Mr PISONI: You have not let me finish yet. This led to a loss of $8 million in federal funding—

The SPEAKER: Order! Thank you. You will sit down. The minister can answer the question.

Mr PISONI: I seek leave to insert statistical data—

The SPEAKER: Thank you, you can sit down.

Mr PISONI: —to support my explanation.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

Mr PISONI: I seek leave to insert statistical data to support my explanation.

Members interjecting:

Mr PISONI: So you're rejecting leave, are you? You're withdrawing leave, are you?

The SPEAKER: Order! The member for Unley will sit down.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The member for Unley can do a grievance debate after this if he wishes, and if he wishes he can include it then. Normally we do not include statistical data in question time. Minister, I think that you need to address that question.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. M.J. Atkinson interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Croydon, order! Minister.

The Hon. G. PORTOLESI (Hartley—Minister for Education and Child Development) (14:48): Madam Speaker, I am very happy to answer this question in whatever form it is delivered because, as I recall, I think that our Premier and the then minister for education's first budget in 2010-11 actually injected an extra $203 million; and, by the way—

Mr Pisoni interjecting:

The Hon. G. PORTOLESI: —I know that you don't like the answer—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. G. PORTOLESI: —in 2011-12 (and I do not have the material in front of me directly) as I recall it was about an extra $127 million. So, for the last two budgets an extra, close to, $330 million. The Treasurer is nodding. Nonetheless, we are a government that is prepared to put its money where its mouth is when it comes to investing in education. We consider that literacy and numeracy is a priority. The member very conveniently omits the fact that, in fact, South Australia received 100 per cent in the first round of its reward funding, and the two funding rounds put together represent something like—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. G. PORTOLESI: Something like 73 per cent of total funding available to us was received by us. I should also clarify, if they dare to be quiet for 30 seconds, Madam Speaker, that the figures as reported today represent all three sectors—government, Catholic and independent. We are very grateful for the very close working relationship we have with those other two sectors because we are all committed to ensuring that every student in our system reaches their potential. We are doing a stack of things in relation to addressing literacy and numeracy. We have 264 reading support teacher roles—

An honourable member interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. G. PORTOLESI: —the TEFL program, our literacy secretariat, the primary maths and science strategy, worth over $50 million, and, of course, the literacy coaches that I spoke about yesterday in this place. We want every student in our system to do the very best that they can. Literacy and numeracy are important. I grant you that in this round we did not do as well as we did in the first round where we received 100 per cent of the funding that was available. This is a reflection of a trial, by its very nature. Some things are going to be successful and some are not. There are 78 schools across the three systems and this is not an indicator of our system in general.

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