Ms MANISON - 2016-04-21
Yesterday you said that education funding to our schools has no correlation to outcomes. This is in direct contradiction to your government’s submission to the Senate Select Committee on School Funding Investment, which said:
It went on to say:
Will you now admit that your cuts to education impact on the quality of education and outcomes, as outlined in your government’s submission?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I wish the member for Wanguri would listen to some of the debates in the Chamber. We discussed the Senate inquiry very openly yesterday. It is true that dollars matter, but it is more about how the money is spent. It is the wisdom we spoke of yesterday of how money is spent. You cannot walk into a school and flutter money around like confetti, as the former Labor government did. You target how that money will be used.
We have taken the focus away from the confetti you used to throw around, and we are focusing on results. That is what is important and what the Labor opposition fails to understand. Yes, money is important, but if it is not spent wisely it can be wasted.
Ms Fyles interjecting.
Mr CHANDLER: Back to the Senate inquiry, if the honourable member would like to listen. The Senate inquiry was looking at scenarios and what would happen if these kinds of cuts were to occur. We need to give an answer. If that kind of money was taken away from the Northern Territory, around $20m a year, it could equate to 200 teachers in the Northern Territory. It is speculative.
The former agreement I had with Christopher Pyne, the then Minister for Education, was for a four-year deal that the Territory benefitted from by an extra $272m by not signing up to the Gonski deal. We gained an additional $272m because of good negotiations and relationships with the federal government. Had we listened to this mob over here, the coffers in the Northern Territory would have been short by around $272m in education.
The current funding agreement lasts all this year and next year. Until the end of 2017 we will be in the current funding agreement. At the moment we are negotiating the agreement from 2018 onwards. The Senate inquiry is looking at what impacts could occur if money was taken out of the budget. I have it on the record from Senator Birmingham, the current Education minister, that he has no intention of taking money away from the Northern Territory. He will be giving us more money.
He was on record – if you happened to listen to radio this, morning member for Karama. There is a promise from the federal government for more money into the Northern Territory because they understand the importance of their support of the Northern Territory government in the education space.
- Any reduction in funding is likely to have a more significant effect on education service delivery in the Northern Territory than in other jurisdictions, due to limited economies of scale, dispersion and the extent of disadvantage.
It went on to say:
- … every additional dollar is critical to closing the gap in Indigenous disadvantage in remote areas.
Will you now admit that your cuts to education impact on the quality of education and outcomes, as outlined in your government’s submission?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I wish the member for Wanguri would listen to some of the debates in the Chamber. We discussed the Senate inquiry very openly yesterday. It is true that dollars matter, but it is more about how the money is spent. It is the wisdom we spoke of yesterday of how money is spent. You cannot walk into a school and flutter money around like confetti, as the former Labor government did. You target how that money will be used.
We have taken the focus away from the confetti you used to throw around, and we are focusing on results. That is what is important and what the Labor opposition fails to understand. Yes, money is important, but if it is not spent wisely it can be wasted.
Ms Fyles interjecting.
Mr CHANDLER: Back to the Senate inquiry, if the honourable member would like to listen. The Senate inquiry was looking at scenarios and what would happen if these kinds of cuts were to occur. We need to give an answer. If that kind of money was taken away from the Northern Territory, around $20m a year, it could equate to 200 teachers in the Northern Territory. It is speculative.
The former agreement I had with Christopher Pyne, the then Minister for Education, was for a four-year deal that the Territory benefitted from by an extra $272m by not signing up to the Gonski deal. We gained an additional $272m because of good negotiations and relationships with the federal government. Had we listened to this mob over here, the coffers in the Northern Territory would have been short by around $272m in education.
The current funding agreement lasts all this year and next year. Until the end of 2017 we will be in the current funding agreement. At the moment we are negotiating the agreement from 2018 onwards. The Senate inquiry is looking at what impacts could occur if money was taken out of the budget. I have it on the record from Senator Birmingham, the current Education minister, that he has no intention of taking money away from the Northern Territory. He will be giving us more money.
He was on record – if you happened to listen to radio this, morning member for Karama. There is a promise from the federal government for more money into the Northern Territory because they understand the importance of their support of the Northern Territory government in the education space.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016