Mr DICK (Oxley) (13:15): I'm pleased to speak on the Education Legislation Amendment (2019 Measures No.
1) Bill 2019 before the House today, as I, like many of my colleagues on this side, take education seriously. I only
wish those on the other side of the chamber shared that sentiment. I'll speak a little bit about that later in the course
of my remarks on this bill. I'm very proud to represent the south-west corridor of Brisbane and Ipswich, where
there are around 53 schools, which I have the pleasure of representing. At each one of these schools there are
amazing principals, amazing teachers, amazing support staff, amazing cleaners and, of course, amazing students.
Every principal or teacher I speak to is in it for exactly the same reason—the kids—be they prep teachers with
our young five and six-year-olds just starting school, learning the alphabet and learning to count, right through
to the amazing and wonderful teachers who support our year 12s, who have just come out of the fire of year
12, their final year of schooling, before heading off to university or TAFE or to begin their careers. All of them
believe in the value of a good education. All of them put their students first to ensure they have the best chance of
success. I'm also really proud to acknowledge the work of each and every one of the educators in my electorate,
in particular my sister Susan, who has been an educator for over 30 years. Like thousands of teachers across the
country, she loves her job and puts her heart and soul into it every single day. Like many teachers, she works
long hours, often into the night, and is not afraid to call me day or night with her great ideas about how we can
improve education. On my phone, as the member for Blaxland would appreciate, the ring tone when she calls
me is Darth Vader. I am fully aware of her frontline experience and I value it every single day.
We as members of parliament are charged with the duty of ensuring our schools, principals, teachers and students
receive the support they need, which brings me back to the bill we are considering today. The bill makes
amendments to several pieces of education legislation—namely, the Higher Education Support Act 2003, the
Higher Education Support Legislation Amendment (Student Loan Sustainability) Act and the VET Student Loans
Act. As the shadow minister, the member for Sydney, has indicated, we will not be opposing the changes put
forward by the government, but I do want to speak strongly on the second reading amendment by the member for
Sydney, which outlines the significant concerns we have on this side of the House about the government's long
track record of failure after failure when it comes to supporting our schools and students. It is not an issue we hear
the Prime Minister speak about a lot, and we don't hear a lot of commentary from the government. We note that, if
the government were committed to giving kids in the most remote schools, and indeed all schools, the best chance
to get ahead, they would be adopting, as we've heard from the previous speaker, Labor's sector-blind, needs based
approach to funding, which would have seen the most disadvantaged schools get the most funding in the shortest
amount of time. But, as facts speak for themselves, that sadly is not the case. Like so many times before, this
government have shown they aren't serious when it comes to supporting our schools. If they were fair dinkum,
every public school in the nation would be sharing in an additional $14 billion to support needs based learning
and development. The attitude from this government is: schools have enough. Public schools educate two-thirds
of students in this country. Just over 2½ million children attend fantastic local public schools. In particular, it's
public schools that educate the majority of kids in poorer families, children with a disability and Indigenous kids.
I want to ask a question of the government: why doesn't the government give these schools the proper funding
they deserve? We've got classrooms that desperately need IT and infrastructure upgrades to keep up with the
learning needs of the 21st century. We have teachers who dig into their own pockets just to buy the supplies
needed for kids in their classrooms. We have principals pleading for funding so that they can plan for the future
in order to ensure our growing population has the education needed to meet demand. In fact, a recent school
infrastructure report estimates an additional 229,000 school aged children will live in Queensland by 2036.
I recognise the work of the Palaszczuk Queensland Labor government in doing all it can to support this growth
with $705.3 million in the 2019-20 state budget allocated for recurrent funding grants and a further $100 million
allocated for capital assistance grants for non-state schools. Since 2015 Education Queensland has delivered
13 new schools in the fastest-growing areas of the state. We hear a lot from those opposite about alternative
approaches, which is their robotic response to everything, so what was the alternative response before 2015,
before those horrid, toxic three years of the failed experiment of the Newman government? It was to close schools.

It was to shut schools down, sell off land, sack teachers and sack teacher aides. That was the commitment of the
LNP, and it's still the commitment of the LNP in the state in which you were a former minister, in that failed
government, Mr Deputy Speaker Hogan. You know, Mr Deputy Speaker, and each and every member of the
LNP in Queensland knows, that was utterly rejected. That approach to slashing, sacking and cutting services has
been rejected by Queenslanders.
I'm very proud to be a member of a party that, in a state government, has not closed schools and has not sold
off land but has built schools, delivered schools and increased funding for educators in our state. We saw the
terrible example of the state LNP leader, Ms Frecklington, criticising teachers' getting a pay rise. I think it's a
brave politician who turns up to a school in his or her electorate and says, 'You don't deserve a pay rise. We think
you don't work hard enough.' That is not acceptable if we are to be a smart, educated nation. We heard examples
from that side of the chamber when the member for Bowman talked about teachers having too many holidays.
We heard the member for Bowman saying—
Ms Ryan: It was recanted, though.
Mr DICK: Well, he obviously met some teachers in his electorate and turned up to a school or two, I would
hope, and heard the feedback when teachers said, 'You know what? You expect a lot from us. How about you
start investing in us?' This side of the chamber is committed to that. Over the last six years we've continually
seen the government fail students. What I note about this debate, looking at the speakers list today, is that there is
a big fat zero for the number of people opposite interested in speaking about this issue—situation normal. There
are no talking points on this one today! No—wait! It's all record funding. Hold your horses; cool your jets. We've
got record funding! But test results over the last few years show the federal government is failing to reverse the
alarming declines in reading, writing and maths. If the schools are being properly funded, I'm not sure what to
make of our education future under this government. Kids in every state and territory are going backwards in
some of the critical areas because we are not funding enough at the Commonwealth level. It's that clear. We want
our kids to get the basics because we want them to have a rich learning experience for the rest of their lives, but,
if we can't get the fundamentals right for the schools that most need it—the disadvantaged schools—if we can't
get the sector-blind funding that is required, it's pretty hard to succeed in more sophisticated subjects, which we
want them to offer as students get older and more mature through the schooling system.
After six years of the current federal government, there's been enough time for a student to start and finish high
school. Despite thousands doing so, we saw the spectacle of the education minister this week. I don't know what
that answer was in question time, when he spent about two minutes just saying 'Um' and 'Ah'. You may be a
student up there from the mighty St Thomas Aquinas School in Springwood, out in force and ably remembered
by your great representative, the member for Macquarie, Ms Templeman. She knows, as every school knows,
that, we've got a job to do here to make sure that we deliver for your schools. The member for Macquarie and
other colleagues, including the member for Lilley, the member for Gilmore and the member for Dunkley, are
education experts on this side of the chamber. We have a colleague who was a principal for over 27 years. I'm
amazed at some of the talent that we see on this side of the chamber. We have the member for Lalor, who has
lived and breathed this experience. It's about time those opposite got their note pads out and listened to what it
is like for a teacher in our classrooms right here in Australia.
At a time when we should be increasing education funding to meet the needs of the 21st century, this government
has come up short, and it's not just in Australia's poor results that we're seeing a problem. When it comes to
the marks for getting into teaching, they're failing too. Schools are being starved of the support they need. It's
a disastrous combination.
But the failure on education funding doesn't stop there. At a time when we've got close to two million Australians
who either haven't got a job or want to work more hours and an economy that is crying out for skilled workers—
with skill shortages across mechanics, plumbers, electricians, carpenters, hairdressers, pastry chefs and welders
—we learnt this week in Senate estimates that the government has significantly underspent on the TAFE and
training budget. The government's response on that was: 'There's not the demand.' Are you kidding me—'there's
not the demand'? Do any of those members opposite actually go into workplaces, and sit down with employers
and talk to owners of businesses? I don't know about you, or what alternative universe they may be living in, Mr
Deputy Speaker, but people are crying out to make sure that they do have enough tradies in their workplaces,
and they don't have enough support.

When you look at the actual figures under this government—all of those sitting there are culpable—there are
now 150,000 fewer apprentices and trainees than when the LNP came to government. That's 150,000 fewer
apprenticeships and traineeships happening in this country. If you were to listen to the government's spin and
talking points—which have been splashed across every newspaper in the country—you would think that the
economy was travelling well. That's what they allege. Well, if it's travelling well and it's building, wouldn't you
think businesses would need access to apprenticeships? Wouldn't you think that businesses would need to grow?
So what is going on over there? The number of Australians doing apprenticeships and traineeships is lower than
it was a decade ago. Ten years ago we had more people in the apprenticeship, training and TAFE system, and
since then we've had population growth—and yet now we've got fewer people in that system than 10 years ago.
There are now more people dropping out of apprenticeships and traineeships than finishing them. Businesses
are crying out for trained staff. The Australian Industry Group says that 75 per cent of businesses surveyed are
struggling to find the qualified workers they need.
This is all in lockstep with what the government has done to university funding. Since the election of the
government in 2013, universities and students have been under constant attack, with cuts, attempts at fee
deregulation, and policy chaos and uncertainty. You never hear anyone from the other side actually talk about
university funding. You hear about their wacky, weird ideas about Western civilisation as it is being taught at
universities or about what shouldn't be taught or about who's being taught communist dictatorship nonsense, in
op-ed after op-ed from all those crazy right-wingers on the other side of the chamber. No-one actually talks about
—oh, they're proud of it! They're all nodding and going along with it: 'We want to have a debate about Western
civilisation in universities'! Start talking about funding universities? 'Ahem, cough, cough'—no response.
Dr Allen: Don't be so rude.
Mr DICK: Well, if you did want to speak—through you, Deputy Speaker—Member for Higgins, put your name
on the list! Jump up!
The DEPUTY SPEAKER ( Mr Hogan ): The member for Oxley is warned on two things: props, and he'll address
the chair.
Mr DICK: Sorry, Mr Deputy Speaker. I apologise. I said, 'through you,' when I made those remarks. My
apologies—through you. But if those members opposite want to speak—through you, Mr Deputy Speaker, and
I won't hold up the Notice Paper—they can get up and speak. They can enter the debate. In fact, I will yield my
last couple of minutes, for any member to speak in this debate and defend their record.
I didn't think so! That says it all. When it comes to university funding, when it comes to funding our schools
and our non-government sector and when it comes to funding our TAFE and apprenticeships the government is
silent, just like in this debate today. They aren't here turning up to do what they're supposed to do—represent
and support the students that have come here to witness the debate. They aren't doing their job, in my opinion.
We need a government that is going to focus on the future of our nation, and that has a plan to deal with proper
economic growth, a plan to deal with properly investing in our education system and, most importantly, a plan
to ensure that education opportunities are there for every single Australian child entering into school this year or
finishing school this year. The options simply aren't there, because this government is not taking enough action
when it comes to properly funding our schools and investing in the future of our kids or, more importantly, to
delivering the infrastructure that we need so that Australia and our economy can grow.
The DEPUTY SPEAKER ( Mr Hogan ): The debate is interrupted in accordance with standing order 43. The
debate may be resumed at a later hour.