Page 2445 - Week 08 - Tuesday, 22 August 2006
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investment changes that have occurred in the delivery of public education since my government came to office nearly five years ago.
We start, of course, with the essential comparison of levels of recurrent expenditure. Recurrent expenditure has increased since we came to government by over 30 per cent. In this budget we are just nudging $500 million in education spending in the territory for the first time, which is a 30 per cent increase in the expenditure we inherited just five years ago. That investment has been into an issue such as reducing class sizes. When we came to office class sizes in K-3 were 30. They are now 21. Let us never forget the significance of that major 25 per cent reduction in class sizes in years K-3 achieved by this government through that significant increase in investment in public education, a major achievement of this government.
We have invested heavily in the latest information technology. We implemented and funded initiatives such as the laptops for teachers program and technical support for student computing. We funded and provided opportunities for students through the smart boards and the latest educational software. We funded increased counselling services—significantly increased counselling services. We implemented a regime of college health coordinators. We have provided massive indigenous student support to a point where we now have, by far and away, particularly through that massive investment in indigenous education, educational outcomes for our indigenous students, who lead Australia in a massive way.
We have also invested heavily in physical infrastructure through major upgrades of laboratories, toilets, disabled access and specialist teaching areas. We provided a rolling, ongoing program of a million dollars per annum in increased repairs and maintenance, which we added to with a $2 million per annum school building renewal fund and which in this budget we have added to with an investment of $190 million. In a single budget—in this budget—we have appropriated and provided for an additional $190 million of investment in public education in the territory. That is a massive injection of funds into public education—$90 million on major upgrades and renewal, $20 million for IT alone and an additional $80 million for a state-of-the-art high school in Ginninderra and a similarly high standard, state-of-the art new school for Gungahlin.
This is important in the context of the debate we are having about the essential imperative of advancing public education in the territory, a system that is under enormous strain, indicated most particularly by the move away from the system by our parents. The people of the ACT are voting increasingly with their feet. Forty-one per cent of all students now choose not to attend a government school, a drain we must continue to address seriously if we are to meet our obligation and our commitment to ensuring that we can maintain the best educational outcomes in Australia. That is not a commitment we can make or have any hope of keeping if we do not continue to reform and advance and make the investments this government has made in the five years it has been in government.
MR SPEAKER: The minister’s time for speaking has expired.
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