Mr ANDERSON: My question without notice is to the Minister for Education and Training. How is the proposed new award for teachers important to the future of public education in New South Wales?

Mr AQUILINA: Historic milestones should be acknowledged in this Chamber. We have already seen much evidence of that. I take the opportunity to express my congratulations to the Leader of the Opposition on the record low poll of her personal rating.

Mr SPEAKER: Order! I call the honourable member for Wakehurst to order for the third time.

Mr AQUILINA: I also take this opportunity to extend again to the students of Young Technology High School my sincere condolences on the tragic loss to their school community and to the whole Young township. Public education is at a crossroads. It is under threat. It is facing the biggest threat since its establishment in 1848. This is a time - and I appeal to all honourable members - when public education needs strong advocates, decisive leadership and firm action. This is a time when the supporters of public education need to work together. Nothing can be taken for granted. Funding from the Commonwealth Government is shifting away from public schools to private schools. With the funds shifting so are the students, and with the students, so are the jobs. They are moving away from public education with its fundamental ethos of a fair go for all.

Mr SPEAKER: Order! I call the honourable member for Hornsby to order.

Mr AQUILINA: Let me paint the picture for honourable members. Twenty years ago more than 78 per cent of all students went to public schools.

Mr SPEAKER: Order! I call the Leader of the National Party to order for the third time.

Mr AQUILINA: The Coalition presided over seven of those 20 years and wrecked public education. Now 70 per cent of all students attend public schools. In two decades 87,000 students have been lost to private schools.

Mr SPEAKER: Order! I call the honourable member for Hornsby to order for the second time.

Mr AQUILINA: Had those students stayed in the public sector, 1,700 more teachers would have been employed in public schools. The past 20 years have seen a loss of 87,000 students and 1,700 jobs.

Mr SPEAKER: Order! I call the honourable member for Baulkham Hills to order.

Mr AQUILINA: That decline translates into 112 public schools never built, 112 principals never appointed and all the associated promotional opportunities have been lost.

Mr SPEAKER: Order! I call the Deputy Leader of the Opposition to order.

Mr AQUILINA: In the past two years there has been a 10 per cent drop-off in the number of students going from our public primary schools on to our high schools. Again, with them go public sector jobs. That level of competition is about to intensify sharply. New Commonwealth funding arrangements will now result in non-government schools being funded on the basis of the socioeconomic status of the community they serve, regardless of their current resources.

Mr SPEAKER: Order! I call the Deputy Leader of the Opposition to order for the second time. I call the Deputy Leader of the Opposition to order for the third time.

Mr AQUILINA: That is a massive financial subsidy.

Mr SPEAKER: Order! I call the honourable member for Davidson to order for the second time.

Mr AQUILINA: When Commonwealth public funds are added to the fees paid by parents, non-government primary schools will be funded to approximately $70 to $80 per student more than our public schools. Students of non-government secondary schools will be funded by the Commonwealth by approximately $400 to $500 more than students of government secondary schools. More than 70 per cent of non-government school students are in schools which will in future
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receive more than 75 percent of the recurrent funding from the Commonwealth Government. In fact, that amounts to about the full cost of teacher salaries for the great majority of non-government schools being met from the public purse.

As this House knows well, I have argued publicly and loudly that the new Commonwealth arrangements significantly disadvantage public schools and will continue to do so. They erode the level playing field. In the next five years Commonwealth recurrent funding for non-government schools is about to increase by approximately 20 per cent in real terms. The reality is that private schools are about to become immensely more affordable. Private primary school fees will be approximately $2,200 per year and secondary school fees will be approximately $3,500 per year. No suburb, town or geographic area will be quarantined from non-government schools competing with students whom we regarded as guaranteed enrolments. That means our schools and teacher jobs are under threat.

Mr O’Doherty: I thought you were the Minister for all schools.

Mr SPEAKER: Order! I call the honourable member for Hornsby to order for the third time. I call the Minister for Transport to order.

Mr AQUILINA: Whilst I am the Minister for all schools, I have direct responsibility for public schools, and it is public schools which are under threat now from the funding arrangement to be introduced by the Commonwealth Government. The Carr Government has increased funding for education and training in the State by more than $1 billion. The annual budget is now $7 billion, but if the environment is competitive, we must also be competitive. If we do nothing more or nothing differently we will, in effect, be going backwards. That is the importance of the proposed new award.

Mr SPEAKER: Order! I call the honourable member for The Hills to order.

Mr AQUILINA: It is an award for the future, firstly, to safeguard and then to strengthen public education to protect the futures of hundreds of thousands of young people and to protect the jobs of New South Wales teachers. We have already started to experience the effects of the Commonwealth competition agenda on TAFE in New South Wales. The Commonwealth actively supports TAFE’s competitors. It funds private providers. So TAFE New South Wales is up against interstate TAFE institutions, international providers and private training organisations buoyed by public funds.

In qualitative terms, TAFE New South Wales is the best training organisation in the country. But the issue is: How do we remain competitive? We need to improve and be more competitive in vocational education and training. In New South Wales, TAFE teachers are on duty for fewer weeks and teach fewer hours than the national average. Our hourly costs are well above those of our major competitors in the private and public sectors. We are losing major contracts to those competitors and that means we are losing public jobs.

Mr SPEAKER: Order! I remind the honourable member for Vaucluse that he is on three call to order.

Mr AQUILINA: We have to acknowledge those facts, and be prepared to make changes. If we do not, we will lose more of the market share and more public sector jobs. The Teachers Federation called its members out last week, and called for further industrial action. That is its answer. It has called for a 24-hour strike this Thursday and that was in defiance of both the Industrial Commission and undertakings it had previously given to the commission to take part in the resolution process. This morning the department took the only course open to it to prevent that massive and pointless inconvenience. It went again to the Industrial Commission, to the independent umpire, to seek a direction to prevent this strike. Justice Monica Schmidt of the Industrial Commission said:

The Federation complains bitterly about what the Department proposes in its award application and the way it has conducted itself in the negotiation so far. It is also however itself prepared to adopt tactics which are transparent in their inconsistency . . .

Her Honour also said:

The Federation persists in its insistence on a right to strike while at the same time advancing its position in proceedings before the Commission, without feeling the need to pay any regard to the consequences for its actions for the children of this State.

Her Honour continued:

Its conduct is plainly inconsistent with the public interest and cannot be ignored by this Commission.

Her Honour went on to say:

It is a sad day when the teachers of this State and the union which represents them are prepared to so conduct themselves.

Mr SPEAKER: Order! I call the honourable member for Coffs Harbour to order.

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Mr AQUILINA: Her Honour continued:

It is obvious that in this dispute, like in every other, a resolution will be found . . . The approach currently being adopted is not the appropriate way to go about finding an agreed way forward to such a resolution.

Under those circumstances, the commission indicated that it had no hesitation in directing the Teachers Federation to take all steps open to it to bring about an immediate cessation of all industrial action and that there be no further industrial action while negotiations are under way. The Federation was also directed to take all steps reasonably available to it to disseminate that direction to its members, including the immediate posting of the direction on its Internet web site. I welcome that clear direction from the commission. Once again, I call upon the federation to heed that direction. I call upon it to obey the commission, to agree not to inconvenience mothers, fathers and students, and to call off the strike.