Mr BONSON - 2006-02-22
Can the minister advise the House on the Martin government’s election commitment to provide a $50 payment to parents for each child enrolled in school?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Millner for his question. In the June 2005 election, the Martin government promised that we would introduce a $50 Back to School Payment for each enrolled child in government and non-government school systems. We were able to make that promise, multimillion dollar though it is, because of the prudent management of the budget and having delivered three surplus budgets over the three preceding years.
That money is used to reduce the cost to parents of getting a child back to school, particularly for school uniforms and other essential school materials. Towards the end of last year, the department spent a great deal of time educating and working with schools on how this system was to run. At the start of year, obviously, more work was done. Considering it was quite a significant change, the whole process was handled very smoothly by the agency and all the schools directly involved. I am grateful to them all for the work they put in. There are 42 000 students in the system and around 160 schools, therefore, it is no small feat.
There were some teething issues in some schools. We will sort those out by way of a general review, which will be conducted throughout the year. However, it has been well received. I was pleased to find that the office had received a number of phone calls from parents thanking the government for the assistance. In some cases, we had phone calls suggesting improvements to the scheme and we will be listening to those. However, the common theme throughout, even in my own electorate, and it is always good to get that, is appreciation for the recognition by government of the very real cost of getting kids off to school.
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Millner for his question. In the June 2005 election, the Martin government promised that we would introduce a $50 Back to School Payment for each enrolled child in government and non-government school systems. We were able to make that promise, multimillion dollar though it is, because of the prudent management of the budget and having delivered three surplus budgets over the three preceding years.
That money is used to reduce the cost to parents of getting a child back to school, particularly for school uniforms and other essential school materials. Towards the end of last year, the department spent a great deal of time educating and working with schools on how this system was to run. At the start of year, obviously, more work was done. Considering it was quite a significant change, the whole process was handled very smoothly by the agency and all the schools directly involved. I am grateful to them all for the work they put in. There are 42 000 students in the system and around 160 schools, therefore, it is no small feat.
There were some teething issues in some schools. We will sort those out by way of a general review, which will be conducted throughout the year. However, it has been well received. I was pleased to find that the office had received a number of phone calls from parents thanking the government for the assistance. In some cases, we had phone calls suggesting improvements to the scheme and we will be listening to those. However, the common theme throughout, even in my own electorate, and it is always good to get that, is appreciation for the recognition by government of the very real cost of getting kids off to school.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016