Press Conference - Dickson College

ALICIA PAYNE: Good morning, everyone. I’m Alicia Payne, the member for Canberra, and it’s my great pleasure this morning to be here at Dickson College with federal Education Minister Jason Clare and ACT Minister Yvette Berry, and with some of the students leaders from the school – Prem, Tess and Olivia, who welcomed us to the school, and we’ve been having a great chat about their plans for when they finish next year. 

We have a fantastic education system here in the ACT, and such a big part of that is due to the teachers. And I want to also thank Principal Caitlin Horan for welcoming us this morning. 

Our teachers, each and every day, are going over and above to give our students the best experience at school. Their start in life, just not giving them the knowledge they need, but inspiring them about their place in the world and what that can be. And I want to take that opportunity to thank them for that today. 

I’m a proud graduate of ACT public schools and a proud parent of students at ACT public schools. And I think we have a fantastic system here. And our college system is pretty unique and a special part of that. It’s also a big thanks for that to both of these great Labor ministers here, because for the first time, every public school in Australia is fully funded to the resource standard. And this is one of the greatest achievements of the Albanese Labor government in fully funding each and every public school to 100 per cent of that resource standard. 

Here in the ACT, we were already at 100 per cent of that standard thanks to our fantastic ACT Labor government. And as part of our Better Funding Schools agreement where the federal government is investing an additional $326 million into these schools. So this is a really great thing that every student in Australia can experience a fully funded education at one of our great public schools. 

So it’s my great pleasure now to hand over to Yvette to talk more about some good news in the education space today. 

YVETTE BERRY: Thanks, Alicia. Thanks very much, Alicia and Jason, for coming to one of our absolute standout colleges here in the ACT – Dickson College. As Alicia said, we have a unique system, college system, in the ACT where year 11 and 12 is separate from the high school senior secondary school system. And from all that I hear from everybody who studies here or people who study across the country, it is a system that other students across the country say they wish that they had come to the college system in the ACT. It just provides some really great outcomes. And you’ll see across the country students that come from the ACT school system, like this college at Dickson – none other than Keli Holiday and Peking Duk are former students of this college. So it holds a special place in Canberra, but also our students travel the world and tell the story of the great public school system here in the ACT. 

We also have very good completion rates here in the ACT college system – nearly 91 per cent of year 12 students finish college in the ACT, which is well above the 80 per cent or so of students who stay in college to year 12 across the country. That’s something we’re really proud of and want to continue to see to grow. We also have really good rates of students either continuing studying or working once they leave year 12. And if you talk to some of the students here today about their aspirations or their goals once they finish year 12 this year, that really highlights that really strong data that we have of students either continuing study or going into employment when they leave college. 

We’re always very proud to have the federal ministers and representatives, Alicia Payne and Jason Clare here to see our great schools but to meet our fantastic students and teachers and school leaders, because they are what the nuts and bolts of these amazing structures that provide such great education, public school education, here in the ACT. And like Alicia, I’m public school through and through. Both my kids went through public schools, and so I’m always proud to talk about the great things that our public schools offer to students across the ACT. 

And now I’m very happy to introduce Jason Clare, the Federal Minister for Education. Thank you. 

JASON CLARE, MINISTER FOR EDUCATION: Thanks very much, Yvette and Alicia and the principal here at Dickson College and whole team, especially the students who are with us from Dickson College today. Some great news – that the number of young people finishing high school is bouncing back. New data from the ABS shows that last year more boys finished high school, more girls finished high school, more students at Catholic schools finished high schools, more students at independent schools finished high school, and more students at public schools finished high school. 

And that’s a big deal because for most of the last decade, it’s been going in the opposite direction. It’s been going down and down and down, and now it’s turning around. But that’s just the start. I recognise, as Yvette does and all education ministers do across the country, that we’ve got a lot more work to do. 

This week, NAPLAN starts across the country. And NAPLAN is not an entrance exam; it’s a tool. It’s a tool for teachers, and it’s a tool for parents. It helps us to identify children who might need additional help with reading or writing or maths, and then the job for all of us is to make sure that they get that additional support so they catch up and they keep up, and even more kids finish high school. 

And that’s what that agreement that the commonwealth government has struck with every state and territory is all about – about fixing the funding of our public schools and making sure that that funding is tied to evidence-based reforms, the sort of reforms that we know work, the sort of reforms that we know help kids who need extra help to get it so they get catch up and more young people finish high school. 

That’s things like phonics checks when kids are in year 1, when they’re six years old, that identify the children that might need extra help. And it’s things like small group tutoring where children in a group of two or three with one teacher get that extra intensive help that they need to keep up with the rest of the class. They’re the sorts of things that we’re funding in that agreement. They’re the sorts of things that are happening right here in the ACT and are rolling out now right across the country.

Just before I throw to these incredible young students to tell us a little bit about what happens next for them when they finish school, I should mention that this year, more young people will start a uni degree than ever before. More people studying teaching, more people studying nursing, science, engineering, more doctors, too. And today, the Australian government is opening applications from universities to bid to train more doctors right across the country. And this is the latest round of extra medical places at universities. When they’re all implemented, when they all roll out, it will mean an extra 1,800 doctors being trained in our universities than was the case before we were elected. So that’s about strengthening Medicare, it’s about making sure that we’ve got the doctors that we need in the cities and in the bush. It’s about building a stronger health system. It’s about making sure that as a country we’ve got the skills we need. 

So now let me hand over to the most important people here to tell a little bit of a story about them, what they’re doing this year in year 12 and what they’re going to do next year. Prem. 

PREM: My name is Prem [indistinct]. I go to Dickson College, obviously, and I’m in year 12. A bit about me, especially my experience in the education system, so growing up, on a serious note, I didn’t grow up with any real parents around me; both my parents were absent, and I didn’t have any siblings. So I was an only child, and growing up was quite difficult. And for me, the education system allowed me to meet my closest friends who have been by my side to this day and really form great connections that helped me shape where I want to take my future. And because of my upbringing and also the friends that I’ve met along the way, I know for me now that the next step I want to take is self-development and mental health for teens. That is a big thing for me. 

And so, currently this year, I’ve been developing my own self-development course and working alongside one in [indistinct]. They’ve got a great program. And it’s allowed me to meet so many great people, have great opportunities like this and really broadstream my network and just help me learn so much more about psychology and mental health and how we can better help teens and adolescents on their mental health journey. 

And so for me next year I’ll probably take my gap year and allow myself some time to think about what I want to do and think about how I want to present myself to the people around me and how I want to build this course and help as many people as I can. 

TESS: Hello, my name is Tess Coventry. I have had an amazing experience with the ACT public education system. I’ve been through [indistinct] primary school and then Lyneham High School, and now I’m at Dickson College, obviously. And I have always been very academic, but on a personal note, I have had some challenges presented with me this year, and I found the ACT education public system has been incredibly supportive for me of those challenges, and my friends that I’ve been, like, able to meet through this system have been incredible as well. And so I am a big fan of public education in the ACT, and next year I’m really looking to go to Melbourne to pursue potentially psychiatry. And, yeah, I’m really excited to see what the future holds for me there and I’m very excited for the Melbourne system as well because it’s very open. You can pick a lot of different courses, a lot of different degrees within one framework. So I’m very excited for that. 

OLIVIA: Hi, I’m Olivia [indistinct]. I’ve been in the ACT public education system my entire life. But, though, growing up, I did – my parents work with DFAT, so I went overseas for postings to Asia and I think going to international schools there really allowed me to foster this love for international cultures and, yeah, and sort of international development and helping others. So, yeah, I think the ACT education system and the college system here, we’ve had such a wide range of options to pursue, yeah, our interests and I think that’s been really useful for me in trying to figure out what I want to do in the future and, yeah, preparing myself for, yeah, university and, yeah, what I’m going to do in the future, which is exciting. 

JOURNALIST: I might ask one to all of the students – any of you are welcome to come up and answer – but I just want to know, year 12, it’s an incredibly tough year. You’re coming to the end of your 13 years of schooling. How are you feeling as you approach this new stage in your life, and how are you feeling supported by your school? 

OLIVIA: I guess I’m very excited for the future. I think, yeah, the college system especially has been, like, there are so many options to choose from, and that really helps. 

TESS: Yeah, I think one of the greatest things about the education system now is there’s just so many different pathways into doing what you want to do. And I feel like the school system really encourages us and enlightens us as to what those pathways are. And so, yeah, I think I’m feeling very hopeful and supported. 

PREM: Yeah, I think, honestly, nervous. I think that’s just a natural emotion that we feel. But nervous and excited at the same time. I feel like this next year promises so much more opportunity and chance. And I always follow that challenge and strong [indistinct] are quite natural and we all face them, but the choice we have to respond and react is just how we approach that. So next year, yeah, I’m hoping to build that course of mine and get to meet so many more people and just network and help people. I think that’s all of us kids. We just want to help people. So school has definitely helped us find that goal and helped us pursue that. 

TESS: Yeah, and I think that’s a very common thing amongst all our friends – the desire to help people. And I think the college system has been very fundamental in implementing that goal. 

PREM: Fundamentally, yeah. 

OLIVIA: And finding out different pathways to reach our end goal, whether it’s through university or, like, TAFE or CIT or, yeah, just going straight into employment. It’s been very encouraging. There are many different pathways to reach your end goal. And that’s very inspiring. 

PREM: Yeah, this whole stigma that you have to follow a tertiary package or an accredited package – which for those who don’t know, in the ACT a tertiary package is basically a pathway which gives you an ATAR and sends you almost a straight pathway to uni, and accredited, which doesn’t give you an ATAR but which gives you a lot more opportunity. And it’s a stigma that you must be tertiary, but I feel like coming to college for me, I’ve learned that that stigma isn’t so real anymore, and it’s perfectly acceptable to go different pathways, and it’s perfectly acceptable to go that generalised one. And so that’s been really enlightening to me, too. 

TESS: Yeah. 

OLIVIA: Yeah. 

JOURNALIST: Great. Thank you all. Minister Clare, if I could ask you a few questions next. Just first of all, on this topic here, you’ve mentioned it’s the first time in a while that we haven’t been on a downward trajectory with high school completion rates. What will the federal government keep doing to ensure these high school completion rates remain as high as they are at the moment? 

CLARE: Firstly, can I just make the point that, you know, we often focus on bad news and talking about, you know, all the problems that we have in society or, you know, the next generation of Australians has this wrong with them or that wrong with them. But I think what we’ve just heard from these young people is that, you know, we should have great hope for the future. These are extraordinary young Australians. I don’t think I would have been able to tell that story or paint that picture when I was 17. We should be very proud of young Australians who are going through school now and about to make that big step, whether it’s to TAFE or university or to a gap year or set up your own business. 

How are we going to make sure that we keep getting more young people finishing high school and then making that step? Well, a big part of it is funding our schools properly. You know, I’m a product of public education and damn proud of it. I make no secret of that. And one of the proudest things that I’ve done as Minister for Education is make sure that we fix the funding of our schools, something that David Gonski talked about more than a decade ago but has never been fully implemented. And now it will be because of those agreements that Alicia talked about a moment ago. 

But it’s about money, and it’s about making sure that we invest that money in the things that count, the things that will really help. And I think part of that is the investments we make in primary school so that our littlest kids, particularly kids from disadvantaged backgrounds, don’t fall behind and, if they do, that they get help to catch up. Because children who fall behind when they’re little, unless we make that investment and we implement the right reforms there, they’re the kids that are most likely to be behind when they’re skill in year 9 and not make it to year 12. 

But it’s also a little bit about what Prem was talking about. When I talk to young people in their teens, they’ll say that we sometimes take to school more than our lunch in our schoolbag, if that. And that was sometimes weighed down with all the pressures, whether it be the bullying or mental health challenges. And so what Prem was talking about really rang a bell with me. And what these agreements and these funding agreements is about is also investing in the sort of programs that support the well-being of students as they become young adults so that they can deal with all the pressures that are mounting on them as they make that big leap from school to work or to university or to TAFE. 

JOURNALIST: Thank you. And if I could ask a couple of questions on the childcare subsidy as well? 

CLARE: Sure. 

JOURNALIST: So two parents groups are advocating for childcare subsidy to be expanded to au pairs and other several – and other several links to the Liberal Party. Do you worry these lobby groups are distorting the debate? 

CLARE: Well, it seems to me the Liberal Party have a lot of questions to answer here. You know, what looked like a grassroots organisation now looks more like something rooted in the Liberal Party. The story today tells us that these organisations have been set up and run by former Liberal staffers or you’ve got former Liberal MPs involved; even, it seems, the shadow treasurer. Tim Wilson. And if what’s in the media today is correct, then Tim Wilson, the shadow treasurer, has really serious questions to answer, including whether a business that he part owns is involved in this whole campaign. And so I think it is incumbent on somebody who aspires to be the Treasurer of this country to answer those questions. 

JOURNALIST: And, I guess, leading on from that as well, do you worry the Liberal Party is trying to run an astro turf campaign on child care? 

CLARE: Well, as I said before, what looked like grassroots now looks like it’s rooted in the Liberal Party. So it looks like a lot like fake grass to me. We’ve seen this campaign before. We’ve seen trials and attempts at vouchers for nannies before, and they don’t work. Scott Morrison and the Morrison government tried this before. And I think the Australian people are now starting to see who’s behind this whole campaign. 

JOURNALIST: And you mentioned that you’ve tried vouchers and nannies before. Has the federal government investigated the idea of extending the childcare subsidy to au pairs, nannies or other people? 

CLARE: It’s not something that we’re looking at. But it’s something the former Liberal government looked at, and it didn’t work. You know, vouchers for nannies don’t work. I don’t think most Australians would like the idea of taxpayer-funded au pairs for millionaires. That seems to be where the Liberal Party is headed. 

JOURNALIST: Thank you very much. 

CLARE: No worries. All done? Thank you.