Page 1704 - Week 06 - Wednesday, 8 May 2013
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I was clear with what the offer on the table from the commonwealth means for those schools. What it means is that those schools operating above the school resourcing standard would be indexed at three per cent per annum. I have been clear with the information that we have got. If you cannot process what that means, go back and talk to the stakeholders. I have met with the stakeholders. I have met with the AEU. I have met with the non-government schools association. I have spoken with them about this. For non-government schools operating above the school resourcing standard, what this means is that their indexation would be less than what they had planned to receive. At the moment they are receiving, I think, 4.7. If you are operating above the school resourcing standard as the base level, aside from loadings that may be put on particular students, if agreement is reached the index arrangement is three per cent.
I think that answers the majority of your questions. The non-government sector, the independent sector—within the non-government school sector I separate out the independent schools—are unhappy about that, because it is less growth funding. There are no cuts to education funding, but it is less than what they had anticipated. The Catholic system is another issue. They are negotiating separately with the commonwealth, as I understand it, as they are around the country. And then there are the impacts on government schools.
When I sit around the table at COAG, yes, I am sitting there for every single child in a Canberra school and every single child in those systems—in the three systems: the systemic schools, the independent sector and the government sector. There is a chance that they are in one of those three categories, whether they are operating below, at or above. In the government and the independent sector, a significant majority of them are being resourced at above the school resourcing standard.
I have never, ever avoided a question I have been asked around school funding. I have answered every single one of them with the information that I have available, and I will continue to do so. We are hopeful of reaching an agreement by 30 June. I say that not because it is what the Prime Minister wants, but because it is what the schools want.
Schools need certainty. They will be accepting enrolments. In fact, enrolments for next year are open now, so they are making decisions about their classes and their resourcing needs now. I think it is realistic to say that by 30 June we should be in a position where we can let schools in the ACT know what impact, if any, a change will have going forward.
The approach to do nothing is not an option. As I said yesterday, the education agreement expires, as do some of the national partnership agreements. So this is not a matter where you can just say, “If we do not reach agreement by 30 June, no matter.” It does matter. It will matter to those schools that are making decisions now. Enrolments are open now. People are enrolling their kids in schools, and principals and executives of schools are making decisions now. This is not just a time frame that is being imposed by the commonwealth; it is a time frame that I think is reasonable in terms of having to provide information to parents and schools about what it means.
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