Interview with Natalie Barr, Sunrise

14 August 2024

NATALIE BARR: Now let's go back to our politicians. Clare, we're talking about school funding. Now, as I understand it, the Commonwealth funds our public schools to about 20%. You've offered about 22 and a half. With these figures being so bad, do you think you should be offering more?

CLARE O’NEIL: Well, this is something that the Albanese government is really, really worried about Nat. As you said, we've got a third of Australian students who are not meeting those minimum standards that we need to see. Really, there's two things going on here. One of them is about resources and dollars, as you mentioned there. But we can't forget what's going on in the classroom and this is really important about how our education system is seeing those students who are not performing and supporting them to catch up to their classmates. So what is our Government doing about this? Well, we've come to the party on the funding. We've got an additional $16 billion that we are willing to offer the states, but we're not going to write a blank cheque here. We do need to see the states step up and say what goes on in these classrooms is really important as well as the dollars, and we do need to see some changes there if we're going to see these results shift.

NATALIE BARR: Okay, Jane, if you were the Government, what would you do here?

JANE HUME: Well there has been record funding put into our education system for many, many years now. Let's not forget that some of these kids were caught up in that Black Swan Covid event that affected so many kids' educational outcomes. So the catch up game is a really important one here. For many years now, the Coalition has been saying we must be focused on teaching methods, particularly around phonics, around reading, that back to basics approach around literacy and numeracy, but particularly reading and for years, Labor governments have resisted, State and Federal, but they do seem to be coming back to the fold and that's great news.

NATALIE BARR (INTERRUPTS): Well you were in until two years ago?

JANE HUME: No, this is the thing. State Labor Governments and Federal Labor Governments have resisted phonics teaching, that back to basics approach. But they've moved, they've shifted. That's a really good thing. We want to make sure that the back to basics approach is brought back to the classroom, so that to allow those kids, particularly, to learn how to read, because let's face it, you can't read a maths textbook. You know, you can't do maths from a maths textbook if you can't read. So phonics is fundamentally important. That should be part of the deal. It's not all about the money, it is about the teaching methods, making sure that those teachers are well resourced.

NATALIE BARR: Yeah, and you know what it is about. Paying our teachers what they deserve Clare. People are leaving the profession in their droves. They also talk about the paperwork that they're not spending enough time teaching our kids and all the red tape that they have to do instead of being in the classroom.

CLARE O’NEIL: Oh, look, I've got lots of teachers in my family, Nat, and I do hear that from them and you know, the point that Jane made there is right. I think there are real Covid impacts going on here and you talk to teachers today, they're having to deal with things in classrooms that they've never seen before, even those who have been in the profession for 40 years. So I'd say, again, you know, we often hear Liberals say, oh, this is all about what happens in the classroom and yes, I agree that's really important, but the dollars matter a lot here as well. We are coming to the party with both that $16 billion in funding, the requirements on the States and can I just say you will not find a person in the Parliament with more passion and vigour for this subject than our amazing Minister, Jason Clare. Jason is super committed to making sure we see the changes that we need to get, and I trust him over anyone to try to help us fix this problem.

NATALIE BARR: Yeah you're right, we'll talk to him on Friday about that. Thank you very much, both of you. We've got to go, because we've got some Olympians to talk to.