Doorstop - Ballarat Specialist School
06 Jun 2012
Transcipt SUBJECTS: Federal Government school funding; Mowbray School collapse; Victorian TAFE funding; Interest rate cut
E&OE………
Christopher Pyne: Well, I’m pleased to be here with Senator Michael Ronaldson going to Ballarat then Bendigo later on today. I’m the Shadow Minister for Education so our focus is on Education starting at the Ballart special school, which is the best specialist school in the state. What I need to learn for the purposes of our policy for education for the next election is things that actually work to support students into jobs in the future. Obviously this specialist school looks after particular kinds of young Victorians and give them a good start in life so I want to learn the kinds of things that they do here so we can replicate across the country if possible.
Journalist: (inaudible)
Pyne: Well, these are the individual arrangements for every student at the Ballarat specialist school. Every student has individual plans right from the moment they get here. They can be as young as three and move to 18 or 19 years or even 21. So they have an arrangement which means every child is particularly catered for and I think that is a very good model.
Journalist: (inaudible)
Pyne: Well, the big issue at the moment of course is maintenance of school funding and Peter Garrett has today confirmed there won’t be any legislation this year to implement the new school funding model. This is very bad news for the non-government school sector. It means the uncertainty created by Labor around the Gonski Review continues into 2013 and 2014. Peter Garrett has indicated they will be rolling over the current model year by year, which is disastrous for schools planning for the future. It will inevitably mean the increase of school fees, which at a time of real cost of living pressure is the worst thing that could have possibly have happened for parents of children in non-government schools. So Peter Garrett has fumbled the ball yet again. This will be the third election campaign that Labor plans to go to without a school funding policy, which is not good enough for parents who’ve got children in non-government schools.
Journalist: (inaudible)
Pyne: Well, the Coalition policy on increasing school funding based on the current indexation, which is six per cent; $4.2 billion over the next four years. The Government hasn’t made that commitment. It means there will be a real cut to non-government schools of potentially $4.2 billion. The Government has fiddled about with reviews and working groups and implementation studies for years and haven’t had an education funding policy since 2004 and principals, governing councils and parents should be able to expect a lot more from their government.
Journalist: (inaudible)
Pyne: Well, it depends on the school. I think for example today we are facing a real problem in Mowbray College in Melbourne where the school is facing closure because various issues with that particular school. The Federal Minister for Education Peter Garrett could intervene in the school today if he wanted to and provide them with an emergency assistance fund run by the Federal Government to keep that school open for the next four or fives months to give the 1000 kids in the school the chance to finish this year’s studies and then plans for options next year. If the Coalition was in Government we would use those emergency funds to keep Mowbray College open for the rest of the year.
Journalist: (inaudible)
Pyne: State schools are run by state governments, not federal governments, but that’s not the kind of thing the Federal Government would be responsible for. That’s the kind of thing the Victorian Government and other state governments would be responsible for.
Journalist: (inaudible)
Pyne: Well, my understanding is the (inaudible) state governments (inaudible). So it’s not the Federal Government’s responsibility to (inaudible), but it is the Victorian Government’s responsibility to (inaudible) and make those tough decisions.
Journalist: (inaudible)
Pyne: Well the emergency fund is there for short term small amounts of money, about a million dollars (inaudible), the responsibility of state Governments. With Mowbray College my view is that 1000 kids in the school shouldn’t suffer because of bad management or whatever else has been the reason for Mowbray College’s closure and if Peter Garrett cared about those kids, he would use this power at his discretion to keep the school open until the end of the year.
Journalist: (inaudible)
Pyne: They can. They can do it today. Peter Garrett could instruct his public servants today to make the arrangements for special emergency funding for that school to keep it open until the end of the year and if I was Minister for Education that’s exactly what I would do.
Journalist: (inaudible)
Pyne: There are TAFE colleges throughout the country. Victorian TAFE colleges are amongst the best in the county and amongst the (inaudible). They have a very good model created by the Kennett Government and continued by the Bracks and Brumby Governments. The problem with TAFE colleges in Victoria is they’ve been allowed to enrol so many more students than they could afford; subsidised by the Victorian taxpayer. The Victorian Government had to make the tough decision in this budget, but I’m not going to lecture the Victorian Government about how it manages it’s budget and their education system. I’m the Federal Shadow Minister and (inaudible) Mowbray College, but TAFE is really a matter for the Victorian State Government.
Journalist: (inaudible)
Pyne: Sure. The banks would pass through this interest rate cut if they had any confidence in this Government’s economic ability. They know there is no real surplus in this federal budget. They know it’s a paper surplus based on dodgy figures, and therefore they will continue to protect their own interests by not passing on the full reserve bank rate cut. We are in a position where the cash rate is three and a half per cent from the Reserve Bank and yet most Australians are paying at least six per cent on their mortgages so there is a massive divergence between what the Reserve Bank has asked the banks to do and what the banks are doing and that’s because they have no faith in Wayne Swan’s ability to actually deliver a real surplus budget and (inaudible).
ENDS