Mr JOHNSON (2:43 PM) —My question is to the Minister for Education, Science and Training. Would the minister inform theHouse what the federal government is doing to support state government schools? Is the minister aware of other statements or policies in this area?

Dr NELSON (Minister for Education, Science and Training) —I thank the member for Ryan for his question and also for giving me the privilege of visiting with him recently the Centenary State High School and the Gap State High School, both of which are in his electorate. The Commonwealth government this year in its budget has increased funding for state government school students by 5½ per cent. That means that over the last seven years the Commonwealth has increased its funding to state government high school students and primary school students by 59.9 per cent, being a period in which enrolments in the government sector increased by 1.6 per cent. So in seven years there has been a 60 per cent increase in Commonwealth funding with a 1.6 per cent increase in enrolments.

The reason why that is the case is that the Commonwealth government increases its funding to schools on the basis of what is described as the average government school recurrent cost index—AGSRC. This is a matter that has been of concern to the state and territory governments, because the Commonwealth provides about 12 per cent of all of the money that goes into the education of our children in state government schools. So the states, which are responsible for regulating, administering and primarily funding their schools, are always concerned to know that the Commonwealth is providing the kinds of resources that the states need—so much so that on 5 December last year the Queensland Minister for Education made a ministerial statement in the Queensland parliament. She said:

That is an accurate statement.

That is refreshing honesty. She went on to say:

the consumer price index—

In other words, the Queensland minister was pointing out that Commonwealth funding to Queensland state government schools was increasing at a rate almost three times that of the inflation rate. She followed it up with a letter to me, which she referred to in her ministerial statement, expressing concern that the Commonwealth may move away from this indexation. She said of that prospect:

The Prime Minister, certainly the Treasurer and I have said that the AGSRC indexation of Commonwealth money to state government schools will continue. So you could imagine it was with bated breath that we waited for the Queensland budget to be delivered yesterday afternoon. The Commonwealth had increased its funding to Queensland government state schools this year by 5.4 per cent, with enrolments forecast to increase by 0.9 per cent. To our surprise, we did not find in the Queensland budget a 5.4 per cent increase in funding to the 460,000 students in Queensland state schools. It was not a 5.4 per cent, not a five per cent, not a four per cent, not even a three per cent increase. Instead, there was a 2.4 per cent increase in funding by the Queensland government to its state government schools, which is within the inflation band of the Reserve Bank—in other words, a real reduction. I looked for independent analysis of the Queensland budget, and I chanced upon a media release which read:

It went on:

Could this be the member for Ryan, the member for Forde, the member for Fairfax or the member for Petrie? No. This was from the Queensland Teachers Union President, Julie-Ann McCullough. The point here is that the Queensland budget is replicating a process occurring throughout the country. In Western Australia, the Commonwealth increased its funding by 5.1 per cent, and the Western Australian budget increased it by 2.8 per cent. In Victoria, the Commonwealth increased its funding to government state schools by 6.1 per cent, and the Victorian government increased it by 2.3 per cent. And on it goes. It is time in this country that we realise that we need to move from eight different educational jurisdictions to one single educational framework for Australia. We need a common curriculum and educational outcomes. We certainly need to increasingly move to a common indexation for school funding, and the states need to keep up with the Commonwealth, because this year the parents of the 2.2 million students in government schools will be deprived of half a billion dollars because state governments are not indexing their funding in line with the Commonwealth.

Mr Dutton —Could the Minister for Education, Science and Training table those comments from the Queensland Teachers Union?

Dr Nelson —I table the statement by the Queensland Teachers Union and also the ministerial statement made by the Queensland minister.