The Liberals’ cuts to education

Thank you for coming out this afternoon. We hear reports from the education ministers' meeting in Adelaide this afternoon that states and territories continue to refuse to sign an agreement with the Commonwealth Government on school funding. In its fifth year of government, the Turnbull Government cannot land an agreement with states on school funding, because its proposal to cut $17 billion from school funding will have such a detrimental effect on schools across Australia. Now we know that states and territories run 70 per cent of schools in Australia, and of course it's no wonder that they won't agree to these $17 billion worth of cuts. What we know from this arrangement is that the Commonwealth Government is prepared to pay 80 per cent of the cost of educating a child in a private school, but only 20 per cent of the cost of educating a child in a public school. What that will mean is that 85 per cent of public schools across Australia will never reach their fair funding level. That means kids who are falling behind, it means kids who are gifted and talented, it means kids who have any sort of special need, will never get the one-on-one attention that they need. It'll mean the great reforms that were initiated when Labor was last in government can't proceed. It'll mean that teachers will not be able to do the continuing professional development that they are so keen to do, to make sure that their skills continue to be updated constantly, so they can be the best possible teachers in their classrooms. It's no wonder that there's no agreement on these $17 billion of cuts.

But these $17 billion of cuts to schools are joined this week by the efforts of the Federal Government to cut almost $4 billion from universities. Now the almost $4 billion of cuts made it through the House of Representatives this week, but thankfully the Senate has seen sense. Senate crossbenchers have joined with Labor to say to the Government we do not support cutting $3.8 billion from our universities. We do not support jacking up fees for university students. We don't support making uni students pay back higher debts, sooner, for a poorer quality education. So thankfully the Government has had to retreat from its commitment to cut education funding to universities this week that's languishing in the Senate.

Any questions?

 JOURNALIST: Just in terms of the school funding, where do we go from here if the states can't reach an agreement?

 PLIBERSEK: Well the Government should dump its $17 billion worth of cuts. You know, when the Government first announced its new funding deal, they put up a schools' funding estimator online and they said to all parents, oh look you can have a look at what's going to happen to your school's funding. Almost straight away they took down that schools' funding estimator because parents were outraged when they saw the funding cuts that would occur in their child's school. Three months later, that estimator is still down because this Government knows when parents find out where those $17 billion of cuts are going to fall, parents will be outraged. Why doesn't the Government just admit that these cuts are bad for children, they're bad for our economy, because if we don't have an educated workforce we can't have a prosperous economy. Why doesn't the Government dump these cuts and instead, perhaps, properly tax companies, tax millionaires? We've got more than $100 billion of proposals that could improve the budget bottom line, including giving up on the $65 billion of big business tax cuts, including dumping the $19 billion of tax cuts that go to people earning more than $180 000 a year, including $37 billion of improvements if we restrict negative gearing and capital gains tax concessions. We can find well over $100 billion of budget bottom line improvements - let's dump these $17 billion of cuts to schools.

 JOURNALIST: We're fast approaching the end of this school year, is there a lot of uncertainty now and does there need to be some kind of interim deal, or what do you think about that?

 PLIBERSEK: Look this is causing horrendous uncertainty for school systems around Australia. But that horrendous uncertainty isn't fixed by states agreeing to $17 billion worth of cuts. We know that school funding for next year is under threat right now. This Government is playing chicken with the education of Australian children. It's not fair, it's not right. Simon Birmingham and Malcolm Turnbull should agree to dump their cuts and give states and territories the certianty they deserve so our children get the education that they deserve.

 JOURNALIST: You've said that none of the states are prepared to sign up at the moment, does that include the Liberal states and if so, what does that say about this deal?

 PLIBERSEK: Well certainly the most recent information we have from the ministers' meeting today is that none of the states and territories are prepared to sign up to this dud deal. And it's no wonder - when you look at states like NSW that have found room in their budget, they're spending extra money on education too, because under our previous arrangement, for every $2 we put in the states had to put in a dollar extra as well. So we were prepared to come to the table with extra funding, but the states had to increase their investment as well. NSW has made room in its budget to find that extra funding, why should it agree to see federal funding then decrease? Tasmania, the other Liberal state - second worst deal in the country for Tasmania. I've seen a lot of Tasmanian schools and I know they need the extra funding. I've travelled all around Australia and I have seen schools that are desperate for this extra money. I've talked to teachers and principals who can tell me what the early years of extra funding has already meant, what more they could do with the following years of funding. They're faced now with this being snatched out of their grasp at the last minute. They want to give the best possible education to every child and it's the Commonwealth Government that is denying them that opportunity.