Mr STIRLING - 1996-02-28
The Country Liberal Party's federal candidate, Nick Dondas, claims to be a strong supporter of education, yet the Coalition intends to reduce funding to private schools by cutting capital funds for non-government schools by up to $90m over 3 years.
Mr Speaker, I seek leave to table a copy of a press release from the National Catholic Education Commission.
Leave granted.
Mr STIRLING: Does the Minister for Education and Training support Nick Dondas' plans to reduce education funding to the Territory's private schools? If so, can the minister tell the House what effects these severe budget cuts will have on the Territory's non-government schools?
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, I find it extraordinary that any Labor member opposite would stand up and make statements of that kind. Even last week ...
Mr Stirling: This is your candidate who wants the cut.
Mr SPEAKER: Order!
Mr HATTON: No, he does not want the cut at all.
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Mr Ede: Ah, he is not supporting them on this?
Members interjecting.
Mr SPEAKER: Order!
Mr HATTON: This is the mob who have defended Warren Snowdon for the last 9 years while he has worked at overseeing, and in many cases has actively supported, programs that discriminate against Northern Territory students in the allocative mechanisms of the federal government. Mention was made of that in debate yesterday. For the last decade, this federal government has been slashing general recurrent funding to the Territory, slashing the availability of funding and thereby cutting the Territory government's capacity to deliver services and facilities. Cuts in recurrent funding have been equal to 30% in real terms, but that is irrelevant to members opposite.
Members interjecting.
Mr SPEAKER: Order!
Mr HATTON: The federal government then started cutting into specific-purpose funding to funnel money out of places like the Northern Territory and towards Sydney and Melbourne through the allocative processes. I will give simple examples such as the $20m-odd a year being denied to local government ...
Mr Stirling: $90m to non-government schools.
Mr SPEAKER: Order!
Mr HATTON: ... and the cute trick Commonwealth-state housing funds being allocated on a per capita basis rather than a basis of need, with the result that funding for housing is being driven down from something like $55m a year to $13.5m a year. In education, I mentioned last week what members opposite might call a couple of small programs. I did not hear them even comment on this. Examples are the disadvantaged schools program, the country area program and the English as a second language program.
Members interjecting.
Mr HATTON: Warren Snowdon, Parliamentary Secretary to the federal Minister for Employment, Education and Training, intervened to ensure that the Territory missed out on equitable funding. If there is one very clear group of people who deserve `English as a second language' funding ...
Mr Bailey: Here is your answer.
Members interjecting.
Mr SPEAKER: Order!
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Mr HATTON: If there is one group in Australia - and the member for Arnhem should support this, as should the member for Arafura - who deserve funding for that program, it is Aboriginal people. Clearly, English as a second language and intensive English programs are critically important to people in those communities.
Mr EDE: A point of order, Mr Speaker! I draw your attention once again to standing order 113. The minister has spoken about councils, about health and about ESL. He has not come within cooee of the $90m cuts that are being promised by the Coalition to private schools and the question as to whether he will distance himself from Nick Dondas ...
Members interjecting.
Mr SPEAKER: Order! Once again, I rule that, provided an answer is relevant ...
Mr Ede: It is not relevant.
Mr SPEAKER: ... to the question, then the minister is free to answer in whatever way he chooses. However, I ask the minister to confine his answer to the question asked.
Mr HATTON: Mr Speaker, I thought the question related to funding cuts to the Northern Territory, particularly to education. That is the point that I was addressing when the Leader of the Opposition raised his point of order.
Mr Ede: Listen to the question.
Mr HATTON: English is not even a commonly used language in many communities. Aboriginal children should be entitled to have access to federal funding that is available for ESL programs. Despite years of submissions and requests from the Northern Territory government to the federal Labor government and to Warren Snowdon, the member for the Northern Territory, Aboriginal people were excluded from access to federal funding for ESL.
Mr Bell: It is your mainstream responsibility. That is what you say to the Grants Commission every 3 years.
Mr HATTON: There he goes again! He ignores the fact that we are running wide-ranging bilingual programs. ESL is a federal funding initiative. The federal government said that Aboriginal people could not access it. It is only in the last few months that it has finally said that they can access it. Finally, after years, we got the federal government - not Warren Snowdon - to agree, but we still have not seen the colour of its money. It made a commitment in the lead-up to an election, but we have not seen the bucks as yet. That is the truth of it.
Previously, I have spoken about the disadvantaged schools program and the classic example of Mamaruni School on Croker Island being regarded as less disadvantaged than Parap Primary School. The formulas do not work. We have demonstrated time and again that the federal formula system disadvantages the Northern Territory. We have been ignored. The ministerial council recommended that the federal government adopt a more appropriate formula, but the federal government refused. That is costing Territory students money. That
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is where the real money is being lost. There should be much more money coming into the Territory government's general budget so we can do the job we want to do, not this sort of nonsense.
Members opposite carry on about private schools. The Northern Territory branch of the Australian Labor Party stands here in total hypocrisy. For example, it opposed OLSH taking over Traeger Park School. It opposed the Lutheran Mission taking over Yirara. It opposes the development of private schooling in the Northern Territory because it is locked into the idea that there must be some bland, across-the-board approach and everyone must attend a government school. That is the philosophy of members opposite. We are offering choice in education to parents and students. If they want to attend a government school, we will work to provide the best quality education that we can. If parents want their children to attend a private school, that choice should also be available to them.
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Mr Speaker, I seek leave to table a copy of a press release from the National Catholic Education Commission.
Leave granted.
Mr STIRLING: Does the Minister for Education and Training support Nick Dondas' plans to reduce education funding to the Territory's private schools? If so, can the minister tell the House what effects these severe budget cuts will have on the Territory's non-government schools?
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, I find it extraordinary that any Labor member opposite would stand up and make statements of that kind. Even last week ...
Mr Stirling: This is your candidate who wants the cut.
Mr SPEAKER: Order!
Mr HATTON: No, he does not want the cut at all.
Page 1231
Mr Ede: Ah, he is not supporting them on this?
Members interjecting.
Mr SPEAKER: Order!
Mr HATTON: This is the mob who have defended Warren Snowdon for the last 9 years while he has worked at overseeing, and in many cases has actively supported, programs that discriminate against Northern Territory students in the allocative mechanisms of the federal government. Mention was made of that in debate yesterday. For the last decade, this federal government has been slashing general recurrent funding to the Territory, slashing the availability of funding and thereby cutting the Territory government's capacity to deliver services and facilities. Cuts in recurrent funding have been equal to 30% in real terms, but that is irrelevant to members opposite.
Members interjecting.
Mr SPEAKER: Order!
Mr HATTON: The federal government then started cutting into specific-purpose funding to funnel money out of places like the Northern Territory and towards Sydney and Melbourne through the allocative processes. I will give simple examples such as the $20m-odd a year being denied to local government ...
Mr Stirling: $90m to non-government schools.
Mr SPEAKER: Order!
Mr HATTON: ... and the cute trick Commonwealth-state housing funds being allocated on a per capita basis rather than a basis of need, with the result that funding for housing is being driven down from something like $55m a year to $13.5m a year. In education, I mentioned last week what members opposite might call a couple of small programs. I did not hear them even comment on this. Examples are the disadvantaged schools program, the country area program and the English as a second language program.
Members interjecting.
Mr HATTON: Warren Snowdon, Parliamentary Secretary to the federal Minister for Employment, Education and Training, intervened to ensure that the Territory missed out on equitable funding. If there is one very clear group of people who deserve `English as a second language' funding ...
Mr Bailey: Here is your answer.
Members interjecting.
Mr SPEAKER: Order!
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Mr HATTON: If there is one group in Australia - and the member for Arnhem should support this, as should the member for Arafura - who deserve funding for that program, it is Aboriginal people. Clearly, English as a second language and intensive English programs are critically important to people in those communities.
Mr EDE: A point of order, Mr Speaker! I draw your attention once again to standing order 113. The minister has spoken about councils, about health and about ESL. He has not come within cooee of the $90m cuts that are being promised by the Coalition to private schools and the question as to whether he will distance himself from Nick Dondas ...
Members interjecting.
Mr SPEAKER: Order! Once again, I rule that, provided an answer is relevant ...
Mr Ede: It is not relevant.
Mr SPEAKER: ... to the question, then the minister is free to answer in whatever way he chooses. However, I ask the minister to confine his answer to the question asked.
Mr HATTON: Mr Speaker, I thought the question related to funding cuts to the Northern Territory, particularly to education. That is the point that I was addressing when the Leader of the Opposition raised his point of order.
Mr Ede: Listen to the question.
Mr HATTON: English is not even a commonly used language in many communities. Aboriginal children should be entitled to have access to federal funding that is available for ESL programs. Despite years of submissions and requests from the Northern Territory government to the federal Labor government and to Warren Snowdon, the member for the Northern Territory, Aboriginal people were excluded from access to federal funding for ESL.
Mr Bell: It is your mainstream responsibility. That is what you say to the Grants Commission every 3 years.
Mr HATTON: There he goes again! He ignores the fact that we are running wide-ranging bilingual programs. ESL is a federal funding initiative. The federal government said that Aboriginal people could not access it. It is only in the last few months that it has finally said that they can access it. Finally, after years, we got the federal government - not Warren Snowdon - to agree, but we still have not seen the colour of its money. It made a commitment in the lead-up to an election, but we have not seen the bucks as yet. That is the truth of it.
Previously, I have spoken about the disadvantaged schools program and the classic example of Mamaruni School on Croker Island being regarded as less disadvantaged than Parap Primary School. The formulas do not work. We have demonstrated time and again that the federal formula system disadvantages the Northern Territory. We have been ignored. The ministerial council recommended that the federal government adopt a more appropriate formula, but the federal government refused. That is costing Territory students money. That
Page 1233
is where the real money is being lost. There should be much more money coming into the Territory government's general budget so we can do the job we want to do, not this sort of nonsense.
Members opposite carry on about private schools. The Northern Territory branch of the Australian Labor Party stands here in total hypocrisy. For example, it opposed OLSH taking over Traeger Park School. It opposed the Lutheran Mission taking over Yirara. It opposes the development of private schooling in the Northern Territory because it is locked into the idea that there must be some bland, across-the-board approach and everyone must attend a government school. That is the philosophy of members opposite. We are offering choice in education to parents and students. If they want to attend a government school, we will work to provide the best quality education that we can. If parents want their children to attend a private school, that choice should also be available to them.
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Last updated: 09 Aug 2016