Mr MOSSFIELD (10:52 AM) —I rise to speak on the States Grants (Primary and Secondary Education Assistance) Amendment Bill 2001 and to support the amendment moved by the member for Dobell. In considering this bill, I believe it is necessary to consider the broad education issues that we face today.

The bill amends the States Grants (Primary and Secondary Education Assistance) Act 2000 to provide funding for literacy and numeracy programs for the years 2001-02 and 2002-03. If this were extra funding, it would be clearly welcomed. However, it is not extra funding; it is funding that is basically being rebadged. In addition, in delivering literacy and numeracy programs, we need to have a high standard of facilities in our schools, and that is an issue that I will address in my speech this morning. I would also like to refer to a part of the speech that the member for Dobell made yesterday in this particular debate where he highlighted that this is not extra funding but actually rebadged money. He said:

Members would be aware that the Australian Primary Principals Association recently commissioned a report entitled Our future,in which Max Angus and Harriet Olney of the Edith Cowan University surveyed 2,452 primary school principals and deputy principals across the country to canvass their views on school resources and the future of public education. In an introductory letter sent to all federal members, Tony Misich, the President of the Australian Primary Principals Association, states:

He goes on to point out four main areas of concern. The first is resources. He states:

I suggest that, when he talks about the need for teaching and specialist staff, he is clearly referring to teachers who would be able to deliver these literacy and numeracy programs that are so vital in our schools. He also names administrative support and proper leadership structures as other areas of resource concern.

The second point he makes is that 80 per cent of principals believe that their schools are underfunded in terms of what they are expected to achieve. The principals are often forced to take resources from one area of need in order to fund another area of need. The third point that Tony Misich makes is under the subheading `Policies and Ethos'. He states:

The most telling point in that letter is the fourth point under the subheading of `The Future'. The report unfortunately shows that `government primary school principals are generally pessimistic about the context in which schools will operate in the future', although he does point out that there is a degree of confidence in their capacity to maintain standards regardless and a determination to do so, and that almost half believe that government schools will continue to perform well.

The Our future report runs to some 46 pages, which makes for some very interesting reading. I will quote it later, but first I would like to say a few basic things about education in general. It is my belief that a strong and vibrant education system forms the foundation stone of a free and democratic society, and any attack on public education is an attack on democracy itself. Historically, the call for, and the establishment of, public education went hand in hand with the development of a modern democratic state. Mass public education helped to end feudalism as a system of government. Nations that have no publicly provided education system do not prosper. Children are the future of our country and their education is fundamental to that future. This is a cliche, of course, but it is a cliche simply because it is true and obvious and it should go without saying. Unfortunately, we have to say it because some people do not seem to believe it. Some people do not seem to believe in public education; some see education as a privilege, not a right. They are wrong; they are very wrong.

There are already too many barriers in our society for many children. Wealth, geography, the economic environment and technology are just a few. We should not and we cannot allow the lack of access to education to be one of these barriers. Public education is fundamental to the future of our nation; it is fundamental. As representatives of the people, we have a very important role to play. We are the keepers of the purse strings, and it is time to loosen these purse strings and provide an education system that will take us into the future.

There is no point bickering over whose responsibility it is—state or federal—to provide for the education of our children. That time has passed. That is an old way of thinking; that is last century's way of thinking. I would have thought that the end of the millennium and a century of federation would have focused our minds and our ideas on the future. Unfortunately, this government have been so wrapped up in the never, ever of tax changes and in implementing a 1960s French socialist tax that they have taken their eyes off the future and the fundamentals. We have been mired in a bog of everyday petty politics as a result. The report, Our future, gives us a chance to refocus, to examine the problems that exist in the system today and to work towards the type of change that is needed to bring public education into the 21st century. There are problems; they have been identified and we should not be standing around simply passing the buck: `It is not our responsibility, it is the state governments' responsibility.' Wrong again. It is everybody's responsibility. Parents, teachers, students, community leaders, state governments and federal governments—we all have a part to play.

The recent launch of the Knowledge Nation task force report shows that Labor have a plan for the future, a far-reaching and visionary plan, yet this government dismisses it out of hand. If they did not think of it first, then it is not worthy of thought. Wrong again. The government's reaction to the launch of Knowledge Nation amply demonstrates the lack of vision this government have when it comes to education and educational issues. They may have wound back the despicable enrolment benchmark adjustment, but that cannot make up for all the money that has already been ripped out of the public education system of this country.

When we look at the history of our nation, we can point to a number of what have been called nation building projects, such as the Snowy Mountains scheme. I would like future generations to be able to look back, at the turn of this century, and point to education as a great nation building project. What better form of nation building can there be than to build up our education system to where it is the best in the world? One hundred per cent of our future citizens will attend primary schools, 70 per cent will attend government schools. Nation building is not easy. It requires a huge commitment of both money and resources. It requires a vision from our leaders and it requires hard work from the rest of us. Governing is about priorities, and education needs to be placed at the top of the list. It is time to stop buck-passing. It is time to roll up our sleeves and get stuck into it. If we want to face the challenges that are before us today with any degree of confidence and skill, then we must invest in the education of our children. There is no short-term financial return, no quick stock market dollar, to be made from this. The payout will come many years down the track when our children have grown and taken their place in the new society that they will be building. That is why governments must be involved. This is not something for the private sector preoccupied with a quick return on their investment. This is in the realm of the public domain; it is the government's responsibility. That is why governments exist—to provide services to the people, to provide for the education of our young.

I said I would return in more detail to the Our future report. I will start with some comments from the executive summary of that report:

This is an area we have to get right. It is an area that requires constant revision and constant adaptation. Without literacy there is no education. The States Grants (Primary and Secondary Education Assistance) Bill 2000 would go part of the way to addressing that concern if, in fact, there were new money in the bill. We on this side of the House say that there is no new money. The report went on to say:

Budgets have simply not kept pace with the technological advances that have occurred in recent years. Inadequate resources in this area have led to a rapid increase in what is now known as the digital divide, and it represents one of those barriers I talked about earlier. The report also said:

It is not enough to simply provide for reading, writing and arithmetic. Education is more than that, and we need to provide for more than just that. Limited resources require prioritisation and, when you prioritise, naturally some miss out. As the report pointed out, some principals believed that the most needy students were receiving the help they require. That is certainly a good, positive point coming from the principals. However, the problem occurs when trying to resource programs for those students in the next level up of relative needs. This, of course, is most unsatisfactory. It basically means there are insufficient funds in total and that the funds have to be directed to where the principals feel there is most need; but the report has suggested that the needs of the most needy are being met. Three-quarters of the principals were against policies based on competition theories and did not accept that schools should be penalised when parents withdraw children, which happened under the enrolment benchmark adjustment. Education cannot be based on competition, because competition, by its very nature, produces winners and losers, and usually more losers than winners. Education must be universal.

While the majority of principals indicated that their facilities were adequate, some 26 per cent— more than a quarter—indicated that schools were badly in need of facility upgrades. This would again indicate a vast gap in the facilities of schools. Some obviously are fairly well equipped, and many are not. Some principals raised concerns about not being able to protect students from the sun, wind, rain and, in some locations, even snow during physical education classes and school assemblies and when moving between buildings. I know from personal experience of visiting schools in my own electorate that this is a problem—not necessarily with snow but certainly with the other elements.

I am also aware that many school communities themselves—parents and citizens—are raising the money for these facilities. This issue was raised in an article in the Sydney Morning Herald on 30 July when a survey conducted by the Sydney Morning Herald of P&C associations at 90 schools showed that parents are even paying for such basic items as gas and electricity, which in fact are not fully funded by the state government funding program. Funds raised by individual P&Cs, according to this article, ranged from $500 to more than $100,000, with one school in my own electorate, Kings Langley, raising some $60,000. In the Our Future report, reliance on outside sources for funding was seen as a problem by 91 per cent of the respondents.

While speaking about my electorate of Greenway in an adjournment debate in the Main Committee on 29 March, I tabled a list of urgent maintenance items that schools in my electorate required. I said in tabling the list that schools were not asking for the world; they were simply asking for basic items such as toilet and bubbler upgrades, first aid/sick bay facilities, decent security systems and airconditioning. I pointed out that, even if some of these schools received airconditioning, they would have trouble turning it on because, without an upgrade, the power system would blow.

Last week I visited another very good school in my electorate, Blacktown South Public School, which has just under 700 students. The buildings are 40 years old and so is the wiring, and airconditioning, though desperately needed, would be virtually useless because of the age of the power system. It needs at least $35,000 to upgrade the wiring before it can even think about something like airconditioning. In summer, the temperatures soar and the children and teachers suffer, and they will continue to suffer until something is done to fix the problem. The school's classrooms have not been painted in 24 years and the students' artworks can only go so far to cover up the paintwork. Blacktown South is a typical school with dedicated staff achieving great results under severe restrictions, and I think it is time that we as governments, both state and federal, helped these types of schools.

This bill will give $33 million to literacy and numeracy programs over the next two years. If this is real funding, it is still only a drop in the ocean. In its submission to the New South Wales government for this year's budget, the New South Wales Primary Principals Association identified the need for at least an extra $333 million to redress the erosion of funding in real terms and enable the essential programs that I have been referring to in this speech to continue—$333 million in New South Wales alone is what is needed to bring the system up to par. Add the other states into the mix and the figure is obviously much higher.

I welcome of course whatever money is in this budget for education. Any money put towards educational programs is welcome. However, let us be serious. Compared to what is needed in the primary sector alone—let alone the secondary sector—this is nothing and we need to be talking about bigger issues than just what is represented here in this legislation. This bill represents no more than one step in a marathon race. There are still another 42 kilometres to go, and the pack is moving away in the distance and we are in danger of falling back amongst the stragglers, limping home after dark.

Finally, just returning to the Our Future report for a moment, it is important to know that, while it was commissioned by and focused wholly on the government or public sector, it was also supported by the private school principals as well. The Australian Primary Principals Association is made up of both public and private schools, and that association strongly supports the report calling for more resources for public schools. It is time to stop the bickering and buck passing. It is time to put the federal-state divide behind us and look at education as a national priority; it is a chance for some truly monumental nation building. Only then will the money come, and then the resources. Only then will we start to make progress towards the knowledge nation that we all can be and that we need to be.

Mr ACTING SPEAKER —The chair might say that it is very pleased that the member for Greenway's scaffolding did not collapse during the course of his speech.