JOURNALIST: Senator Penny Wong, Labor Senator for South Australia, Finance Minister. Good morning to you, Minister.
WONG: Good morning to you both.
JOURNALIST: Minister, it appears South Australians have been penalised for doing the right thing.
WONG: I dont think thats right. I mean, lets get back to what were trying to do here. Our current funding system for schools isnt delivering the outcomes we need. Its not delivering the outcomes in terms of fairness that is, people being able to achieve their best and its not delivering the outcomes in terms of educational attainment.
So, we need to fix it. And the way we are going about fixing it is picking up the recommendations of David Gonski, which are basically about making sure we resource all our children, resource all our classrooms and teachers, for the future.
JOURNALIST: If this was distributed, though, on a per capita basis, how much would we get?
WONG: Oh, I havent looked at that because thats not the way we would want to do it. And, you know, South Australians would understand that because if GST were distributed on a per capita basis wed lose about a billion dollars a year.
JOURNALIST: Ok, so if it was distributed on the same basis as the GST would we get more?
WONG: Look, the whole way in which were funding this and this is the biggest investment in schools proposed in 40 years is to say lets lift everyone across the country, no matter where they are, to
JOURNALIST: Especially in Western Sydney...
WONG: No, thats everyone across the country...
JOURNALIST: But why would Sydney
WONG: Im happy to answer that.
JOURNALIST: Wed like an answer on this one because its got a lot of publicity in the last day or two. Perhaps you can answer your voters because youre a South Australian Senator why will people in western Sydney get more of this money than people in Adelaide?
WONG: People who have schools which are further away from the national standard will get more money to lift them to the national standard. And if South Australia is receiving less, it is because most of our schools not all of them, because we still have disadvantaged schools in SA and were still demonstrating some $600 million investment in South Australia will obviously have less distance to travel.
I think any implication in your question, that weve somehow skewed this because of particular electorates, is false. Its also misunderstanding what were trying to achieve, which is a standard across the country for every primary school student and every high school student.
JOURNALIST: Chris Pyne, Shadow Education Minister. Hes a federal Liberal MP for Sturt. Chris Pyne, will a Coalition government, if elected, honour this current funding model?
PYNE: Well, only if its adopted by the Council of Australian Governments on Friday, Matthew, and the truth is that Jay Weatherill will have to search his conscience about whether he thinks this is a good deal for South Australia to sign up to. I mean, if this was based on need and disadvantage, which is what the Prime Minister has said yesterday, well South Australia is at the bottom of the table for student outcomes and literacy and numeracy and comprehension. So, if this was based on lifting the standard of students, and getting better outcomes for the students, South Australia would be the big winner, not the big loser, from the new school funding model.
JOURNALIST: But statistically, according to Jay Weatherill, and Im assuming this is the funding model here, as explained by Penny Wong and youre not calling her a liar statistically, irrespective of across the board outcomes in terms of education, this is pitched at those in the lower socio-economic group who are really struggling: disadvantaged schools. And, it would appear, we have less of those.
PYNE: No, see we know for a fact that South Australia has a high level of disadvantage from every single objective analysis done. We also know that South Australias standards have slipped dramatically over the last ten years and were now at the bottom of the table. The only state thats doing worse than us is Tasmania in terms of school outcomes for students. Therefore, if youre struggling, if youre putting a new school funding model together
JOURNALIST: Lets just quickly then take that back to Finance Minister, Penny Wong
PYNE: Why wouldnt South Australia be the winner?
JOURNALIST: Please, Christopher Pyne.
PYNE: Sorry.
JOURNALIST: Finance Minister, Penny Wong, can you just clarify: are you allocating the money because less money is spent in New South Wales than in South Australia, or on results? That is, their results are poorer in New South Wales than in South Australia.
WONG: Well, its actually about a standard per student, so about [$9,270] for primary school and just over $12,000 for a high school student, with additional loadings which are Commonwealth-funded, for disadvantage. So, for children, obviously, who are from more disadvantaged backgrounds...
JOURNALIST: So its about money? Its not about results.
WONG: Its about who has invested and how much more we need to invest around the country to ensure every child, every classroom, gets the resourcing it needs...
JOURNALIST: But a state like South Australia is spending more than New South Wales per child, but it isnt getting the results. Shouldnt you be looking at that? Theres something very wrong there, is there not?
WONG: Well, look, thats a good point. And thats why part of this plan is to ask the states to sign up to the National Plan for School Improvement, which is looking at a range of things which include making sure that we have transparency, making sure that Principals have more capacity to do the right things in their schools. So, we are linking this to improvement.
But I think we shouldnt run away from this very simple fact: Australias education system, across the board, is slipping down international tables. We have to make sure our kids get the best start, the best opportunity to compete in the Asian century, and you cant do that unless youre prepared to resource them.
JOURNALIST: Minister, thank you for talking to us.
WONG: Good to speak with you.
ENDS