Mr GUNNER - 2016-05-24
Minister you have cut 164 classroom teachers from Education in your four years in government. Labor has proposed to inject an additional $31m into schools – $124m over four years. That will provide for more than 180 additional teachers. It will also put back an additional $8m a year into staff supporting teachers handling rising bad behaviour and disability. Your budget today will not replace those 164 teachers and the support staff you have cut. It is focused on capital payments, capital grants and trying to keep up with student growth.
Why will you not reverse your education cuts and put more teachers back into Territory schools?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I am trying to think what it is that I should be calling him at the moment because he is making all the speeches on education. You have an opposition spokesperson for education and yet lately it has all been from the Opposition Leader.
It is flattery because Labor is really struggling in this space at the moment; it is struggling to come up with something new. It wants to take us back three or four years. It wants to take us backwards in the educational results we are now seeing in the Northern Territory, without any science.
In the last three years this government has unpacked an education system that we inherited from Labor. We applied science through the rigorous reviews we undertook, and we implemented the recommendations. The recommendations back what we are doing at the moment, and we are seeing the results.
There are a couple of things within the Leader of the Opposition’s question that I will address. He spoke about additional teachers; the first question I ask is where will he find them?
If you talk to any university in this country they will tell you teacher numbers are down within the education system, within our universities. Where will he find these teachers? I am talking about quality teachers. Where will he find quality teachers to come to the Northern Territory to fill the void he says we have.
Schools today are resourced exceptionally well; we have a record budget this year for education within the Northern Territory. The cost of each student in the Territory is $23 578, and that is more than is invested in any other jurisdiction in the country. We are investing more per student in the Northern Territory than any other government has in the history of the Northern Territory. Not only that, we are backing it up with target infrastructure. We know there are some infrastructure struggles out there, and that is why we are investing in infrastructure.
Rather than make motherhood statements about education, get back into the classroom and analyse the things we have been doing in the last three years. I plead with the Leader of the Opposition to take a few lessons, get a briefing, get up to date and understand what we have in the modern education system in the Territory.
Why will you not reverse your education cuts and put more teachers back into Territory schools?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I am trying to think what it is that I should be calling him at the moment because he is making all the speeches on education. You have an opposition spokesperson for education and yet lately it has all been from the Opposition Leader.
It is flattery because Labor is really struggling in this space at the moment; it is struggling to come up with something new. It wants to take us back three or four years. It wants to take us backwards in the educational results we are now seeing in the Northern Territory, without any science.
In the last three years this government has unpacked an education system that we inherited from Labor. We applied science through the rigorous reviews we undertook, and we implemented the recommendations. The recommendations back what we are doing at the moment, and we are seeing the results.
There are a couple of things within the Leader of the Opposition’s question that I will address. He spoke about additional teachers; the first question I ask is where will he find them?
If you talk to any university in this country they will tell you teacher numbers are down within the education system, within our universities. Where will he find these teachers? I am talking about quality teachers. Where will he find quality teachers to come to the Northern Territory to fill the void he says we have.
Schools today are resourced exceptionally well; we have a record budget this year for education within the Northern Territory. The cost of each student in the Territory is $23 578, and that is more than is invested in any other jurisdiction in the country. We are investing more per student in the Northern Territory than any other government has in the history of the Northern Territory. Not only that, we are backing it up with target infrastructure. We know there are some infrastructure struggles out there, and that is why we are investing in infrastructure.
Rather than make motherhood statements about education, get back into the classroom and analyse the things we have been doing in the last three years. I plead with the Leader of the Opposition to take a few lessons, get a briefing, get up to date and understand what we have in the modern education system in the Territory.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016