Mr CAMERON THOMPSON (7:22 PM) —The member for Kingston reminds me of that lost ABC radio program The Could Have Beens . I do not know whether members recall that radio program. It used to be on late at night. It was quite a good program. One of the big features of that program was the regular appearance of `Stan the Statistician'. `Stan the Statistician' could prove anything by way of statistics. For example, he knew how many left-handed Australian batsmen were nightwatchmen in tests where the Australians had lost the toss. He knew important bits of information like that. When that radio program was gone, I lamented the loss of `Stan the Statistician'. At the time the program was running, I thought that `Stan the Statistician' was just an eccentric listener. It turns out that he was in fact the member for Kingston. I am relieved to be here to witness the wit of the member for Kingston and to hear some more of those great statistical high points.

Mr Slipper —He was halfway there.

Mr CAMERON THOMPSON —He was halfway there. I suppose it is a below par performance for a statistician, but it was a pretty good exercise in remembering past glories.

The States Grants (Primary and Secondary Education Assistance) Amendment Bill 1999 amends the States Grants (Primary and Secon dary Education) Assistance Act 1996. It enacts several initiatives from the 1999-2000 budget. I will refer to some of the budget announcements relating to education. For example, the budget increased funding for education of $870 million over the four coming years. This money will support higher standards, increased opportunity and greater choice in education for all Australians and in 1999-2000 represents an increase of $183 million over the previous year. The $11 billion allocated to education includes approximately $5 billion for schooling.

Some of the other highlights included in the budget is funding for indigenous education programs totalling $996 million over the five years to 2004. The government announced strengthened accountability arrangements for particular programs, including literacy and numeracy programs, which are to be simplified and streamlined. In 1999-2000, $354 million is allocated for New Apprenticeships and $1.6 billion for vocational education and training.

There was a provision for the maintenance of funding of about $13 million per year for the continuation of the Jobs Pathway Program to help young people move successfully from schools to work. Some $60 million is to be provided over four years to continue the Job Placement, Education and Training Program. The funding allocated to JPET will allow 40,000 young people to be assisted in that period. Those were the general attributes of the 1999-2000 budget.

We are looking today at a couple of the important specifics announced in that budget. To begin with, I refer to increased funding of $36.3 million for literacy and numeracy in the year 2000. We find in the budget that the government has allocated an additional $131.1 million for 1999-2000 through to 2003-04 for literacy and numeracy programs for school students, making a total of almost $869 million to assist students with special needs in literacy and numeracy in those four years.

There were some important milestones recognised with regard to literacy and numeracy. The increased funding supported two initiatives announced as part of the government's 1998 election commitments. The first is to improve literacy and numeracy in the middle years of schooling, for which $47.1 million has been allocated. The second is funding of $84 million for a national literacy and numeracy plan.

At the time, the Minister for Education, Training and Youth Affairs stated that there was a great need for action to deal with the problems of the middle years of school because in many cases those students had missed out on acquiring vital skills in the early years of schooling. As a result, they have difficulties coping with the demands of the school curriculum. Dealing with literacy and numeracy problems does not end in the infant years of schooling. For the people experiencing difficulties with literacy, those problems can worsen dramatically as time goes by and their self-esteem and the problems associated with a lack of basic skill get worse.

Another $26.4 million was allocated to extend the National Asian Languages and Studies in Australian Schools program, NALSAS, to the year 2000. That is an allocation dealt with in this bill. That harks back to the budget announcement of additional funding over the next three years of $90 million to continue NALSAS and recognise the important goals that NALSAS is seeking to realise. To highlight some of the achievements of that program, between 1994 and 1997 the number of students studying Japanese increased by over 50,000, the number studying Chinese by 20,000 and the number studying Indonesian by over 100,000. Those are important achievements and we must set about continuing to promote the study of those languages.

Another area dealt with in this bill that reflects the budget announcements is the change to a more appropriate system for funding non-government schools. The budget announcement states that Australia's 2,519 non-government schools will get Commonwealth funding based on a socioeconomic status assessment of the school communities. That comes straight out of the very reliable and reputable ABS data, and it is an important improvement on what has gone before. The new arrangements will give non-govern ment schools drawing enrolments for low income communities a substantial increase in funding. Schools serving the neediest communities at present receive 56 per cent of average government school recurrent costs. Under the new arrangements they will receive 70 per cent. This represents, in 1998 dollars, an estimated increase of $672 per primary student and an estimated increase of $762 per secondary student in schools serving the neediest communities.

Debate interrupted.