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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2013-11-27 Daily Xml
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EDUCATION FUNDING

Mr ODENWALDER (Little Para) (14:14): My question is to the Minister for Education. Can the minister inform the house about the ongoing negotiations between the state and federal governments around the Gonski reforms and what effect cuts to this agreement would have on South Australian schools?

The SPEAKER: I trust this answer will pour oil on troubled waters. The Minister for Education.

The Hon. J.M. RANKINE (Wright—Minister for Education and Child Development, Minister for Multicultural Affairs) (14:14): I have to say that 'negotiation' is a very generous term for what is happening at the moment. In short, the federal government is acting like a team of contortionists, bending and flexing desperately to get out a commitment that they made at the last election. All negotiations are happening through the media and it is no surprise that Liberal premiers who signed up to this deal are red hot. They are absolutely furious, and last night on ABC Radio the member for Norwood said, and I quote:

...the federal government should be honouring any commitment that they have signed up to.

It raises the question: is the member for Norwood implying that only deals that have been signed off by the Liberal federal government should be honoured? We signed a six-year deal with the federal government and we expect it to be honoured.

Mr Pisoni interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Unley is called to order.

The Hon. J.M. RANKINE: If the member for Norwood is offering a fair dinkum unity ticket on education funding, all he has to say to Christopher Pyne is: South Australia signed a deal and we expect you to honour the six-year deal. It is a simple sentence. It should not be too hard. Whether he gets a straight answer or not, of course, is another question. All we are getting is thought bubble after thought bubble from Christopher Pyne, putting first his left foot and then his right foot in his mouth.

He is at his slippery best at the moment. Yesterday he was saying that the funding envelope will remain the same. What he was really saying is that the same amount of funding will have to be shared out between more states. It is like going from an A3 envelope to a DL. Yesterday I used the analogy of you having to share your birthday money with your sister. We now know it is more akin to you sharing with not only Judith but Theresa and Merrilyn as well.

Today Mr Pyne said the commonwealth will put a bit more money back into the envelope to appease Western Australia, Queensland and the Northern Territory to make sure they are not short-changed. What about short-changing South Australia? I have it on good authority the reason Western Australia did not sign up to Gonski was because there was a clause stipulating no cuts could be made to education under the agreement, and according to the Western Australian Council of State School Organisations—the equivalent of our SAASSO here—the following cuts were being planned:

500 job cuts—250 education assistants in kindergarten through to year 2, 100 anaphylaxis education assistants from kindergarten through to year 2 and 150 positions in central and regional offices.

A 30 per cent cut to the School Support Program Resource Allocation that schools use to pay for literacy and numeracy programs, behaviour management, Aboriginal student needs, English as a Second Language, children with learning difficulties, the Priority Country Areas Program and either distance or other disadvantage.

1.5 per cent cuts to school procurement budget.

1.5 per cent less to purchase goods and services.

That is why they did not sign up. The question is: what is going to happen to those kids with disabilities here in South Australia? What is going to happen to the support they would have received? Kids from low SES backgrounds? Aboriginal kids? The answer is: Christopher Pyne does not care.

This government is prepared to fight. We want an ironclad guarantee that every school, every student, is going to get every dollar that was promised. It is time for every member of this house to stand up for the schools in their electorate, stop being partisan political, stand up to Christopher Pyne—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. J.M. RANKINE: —stand up to the mate that put you in the position you are in. Do something about it.

Members interjecting:

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