Page 1612 - Week 06 - Thursday, 7 June 2007
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ACT Labor asserts that it is not the role of Labor governments to promote private education. Instead, it is incumbent on all Labor parties and governments to unashamedly support, promote and fund public education.
That motion was moved and voted on twice at your conference. On both occasions, the Deputy Chief Minister, the Attorney-General, you, Mr Temporary Deputy Speaker, and the Speaker voted in support of that motion. Four of the nine members supported the motion. The fifth member, the Chief Minister, abstained from that vote on two occasions. So the message out of this place to the 41 per cent of families who send their children to non-government schools is: do not expect the Stanhope government to stand up for you because five out of nine members do not support what you stand for.
Let us look at the commitments they made before the last election. Before the last election the non-government school system was providing a real problem for the Stanhope government. The private schools were starting to get antsy and they were looking for a better deal. As a result, the Stanhope government made specific commitments to the non-government system. These commitments included a commitment to conclude discussions prior to the 2005 budget with non-government schools to work through the current and desired methodology for per capita grants and indexation of arrangements to ensure a common understanding and agreement between the ACT government and non-government schools. It has not happened.
A further commitment was to create a $4 million student support services program to enable non-government schools to fund items such as counselling services, ICT support and other equity needs. It has not happened. Another commitment was to engage with all non-government school stakeholders and provide shared services and support. This has not happened. Another commitment was to provide additional funding for students with disabilities in line with the banding outcomes from the student centred appraisal of needs—SCAN—process for non-government schools. This has not happened.
The next two commitments have happened. One was to provide a $1 million one-off grant program to improve disabled access for non-government schools. That is in this budget and some of that money will be delivered in this financial year. In addition, last year they provided $1 million for additional support for early education.
In the three years since those commitments were made, $2 million has been committed. In that time, per capita funding has declined in real terms from the paltry 17 per cent that it was at the time of the election to 16.8 per cent now. This year, out of a budget of $474-odd million, non-government schools in the ACT get $38 million; that is, eight per cent of the budget.
Jon Stanhope and Katy Gallagher made commitments to the non-government school system before the last election because the non-government school system was making life difficult for them in the run-up to the election. Those commitments were designed to shut them up before the election. It is time that the Stanhope government actually made good on its commitments to the 41 per cent of children in the ACT who attend non-government schools.
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