Transcript - Press Conference
SUBJECTS: Tasmanian schools funding agreement; International students.
JASON CLARE, MINISTER FOR EDUCATION: It’s fantastic to be here in Hobart with Education Minister Jo Palmer and Senator Carol Brown.
Today is a big day. Today is a landmark day for public schools and public education right across Tasmania. I was here in Tassie just over a month ago with the Prime Minister and the Premier where we announced and signed an agreement to fully fund all public schools in Tasmania by no later than 2029. And in just a few moments time we’re going to sign an agreement that will do that – and more than that. We’re going to bring that date forward when we fully fund public schools in Tasmania to the 1st of January 2026. We’re going to bring it forward by a further three years. That’s fantastic news for every child in public education in Tasmania today and in the years to come.
It’s a $350 million deal, but it’s not just about money; it’s about what we do with it. This is not a blank cheque. We’re going to invest this money in the sort of things that help children who fall behind at school to catch up and to keep up and help make sure that more young children go on to high school and finish high school and then get a crack at TAFE or university.
We’re going to tie this funding to things like a phonics check and a numeracy check in Year 1 or earlier so we can identify children who are falling behind and make sure that we give them additional support. And this funding is going to be used to invest in that additional support with things like evidence-based teaching and things like catch-up tutoring, where if a child is falling behind when they’re little, you get them out of a classroom of 25 or 30 into a classroom where there might be three or four or five and give them that extra individualised support. And we know when we do that right that it really works, that a child can learn as much in six months as you normally learn in 12 months. In other words, they catch up. And that’s what this is all about.
I really want to use this opportunity to again thank the Prime Minister and the Premier for their leadership, who have helped make this a reality. Two individuals who know how to get things done. And it’s a credit to both of them that we’re here today to announce that we’re going to be able to get what David Gonski started all those years ago done in just over 12 months’ time.
And I also want to thank my good friend Jo Palmer. This is a classic example of Labor and Liberal Governments working together. Forget the politics, forget the parties, think about the children. And that’s what this is really all about. It’s really been a pleasure and a privilege to have worked with you on this, and it’s going to be even better to see it implemented, because that’s ultimately why we’re here. We want to make sure that we’re investing in the future, investing in our children and investing the money in a way that’s going to make a difference for the children here in Tasmania.
Hand over to you, Jo.
JO PALMER, TASMANIAN MINISTER FOR EDUCATION: Thank you very much, Minister. This is a really exciting day, a really historic day for us here in Tasmania. To see this investment that will flow into our schools, that will look at, you know, ensuring that students don’t fall behind. We don’t want any child falling through the cracks when it comes to educational outcomes. To ensure their wellbeing. To ensure that we can invest in our workforce. We’re going to see millions of dollars flowing into our public schools, not in 10 years, not in five years, but in just two years.
It's been a pleasure to work with Minister Clare on this. We’ve been working on this deal for quite a few months now. Where we started and where we’ve landed has taken perseverance by both Minister Clare and myself, and our governments, but always we were putting the children who are in our public schools front and centre in all of our discussions. To see millions of dollars flowing into public schools as of the 1st of January next year and then to the full 100 per cent of funding by the 1st of January the following year, this is an amazing outcome for our children. And it’s just been really exciting to be part of this journey and to be working with the Federal Government.
As Minister Clare said, this isn’t money that just goes into a giant pot. This money is tied to educational outcomes. We want to see our children finishing year 12, continuing with their education perhaps through a VET course, and we want to see those great outcomes in the literacy space and the numeracy space.
We also want our children to feel that they are known, that they are cared for, that their wellbeing is part of what we will be using this money to invest in. And our amazing workforce – our teachers and our principals. We know that if we can resource them, that they are going to be on a platform where they can just be creative, be inspired and be in our classrooms just teaching and filling up young students like the ones who are behind us today with the knowledge that they need so that they can fully participate in life here in Tasmania.
We know we have some challenges across our state. And Minister Clare has seen those challenges and acknowledged those challenges, and that is why we have got to the place where we are today to see 100 per cent funding in our public schools by the beginning of the school year in 2026.
JOURNALIST: What has changed? [Indistinct] What has changed in the last five weeks since the last agreement was signed? This agreement, new agreement was signed?
PALMER: So, there isn’t a new agreement as in the last five weeks.
JOURNALIST: Yeah.
PALMER: So, when I became Education Minister – I think it’s about five months ago now – the first thing that I did was reach out to Minister Clare. He was fantastic. We came together very, very quickly within weeks of my announcement as Education Minister, and we began working on what could a deal for Tasmania look like. It is quite well known that across Australia, other states and territories were holding out for the 5 per cent, and Tasmania was in line with that. We would have loved to have seen 5 per cent, but we had to come together, and we had to work together with what we had. And Minister Clare absolutely acknowledged that here in Tasmania we needed a deal, we needed it to have a short trajectory. It couldn’t be a 10-year deal. We couldn’t wait 10 years to see this money drip fed into the state.
So, we came together. We’ve worked on a deal that will see millions of dollars flowing into this state as of next year. So, it’s been months in the making. We’ve had lots of phone calls, lots of iterations – could it be this, could we look at this – and this is where we’ve landed, which is a great outcome for Tasmania.
Of course, there was a deadline on this. We had to have a deal, at least in principle, formed before the 30th of September. And so that’s where we, you know, obviously had to work with the Prime Minister and with our Premier to get that deal over the line. So, an amazing outcome for us here. But it has taken months of work by both the Minister’s office and my office and our departments to get to this point.
JOURNALIST: And I believe you negotiated a no-worse-off deal as part of that. Can you explain that, please?
PALMER: Yeah, absolutely. So, this is the deal that we’ve struck with the Federal Government, which is 2.5 per cent from the state and 2.5 per cent from the Federal Government. But if any other state negotiates a different deal, then Minister Clare has given us a no-worse-off deal as part of our contract. So, if another state is able to negotiate something different, then we’ve been guaranteed that we will also - that difference will be honoured to Tasmania.
So, we can’t lose in this scenario. We are going to see millions of dollars poured into our state from next year. This is a game changer for us. This is a game changer for what we’re able to do with our educational outcomes, for our aspirations for our students. And while other states are having their own journey with the Commonwealth, if there is a different deal negotiated, Minister Clare and the Prime Minister have given a commitment that Tasmania will – they will also honour that deal for Tasmania.
JOURNALIST: Was getting the money sooner worth sacrificing that two and a half per cent?
PALMER: We’re going to see millions of dollars flowing next year into our public schools. Now, it’s a matter for the other states to hold their ground, and they have their reasons. But we have a no‑worse-off deal. If a different deal can be done with another state, that will be honoured to Tasmania. So, we can’t lose in this scenario. What we can do is see millions of dollars flowing from next year into our public schools, which is going to be a game changer for what we’re trying to achieve here in Tasmania.
We want teachers that are excited to be in this profession. We want students that are aspirational, and we want to smash out those educational outcomes. And this new deal, this injection of millions of dollars, gives us the platform from which we can launch incredible reforms and incredible agendas for the young people of our state.
JOURNALIST: How confident are you that this deal will provide enough funding for the sector here? Why not fight for more like the other states?
PALMER: So, we are absolutely delighted that we’re going to see money flowing from next year. Yes, other states have their own journey that they have to go on. And that means they don’t see millions of dollars flowing to their states as of next year. We will. We can begin our reform agenda. We can begin that aspirational journey with this new money that is coming into the state. And, as I say, we have a no-worse-off deal. If a different deal is negotiated with another state, we have confirmation that the Commonwealth Government will honour that deal for us here in Tasmania.
JOURNALIST: I think Tasmania already spends more per student than any other state and yet our learning outcomes are worse. So, more money is great, but, you know, how important is it to spend this smartly?
PALMER: Yeah, what is so exciting about this opportunity is that we now have a chance, because we know we’re going to see this huge amount of money coming into Tasmania for the next five years starting at the beginning of next year, what reforms can we make with that. We know that Tasmania invests heavily in our education system, but we know that we don’t necessarily get the educational outcomes that we long for. So now we have an opportunity to really look at where are the areas that we need to continue investing in, what are the reforms that are now realistic to us. They are realistic because of this funding agreement. This is a very exciting time for us in the education space.
JOURNALIST: Is there any potential for school levies paid by parents or carers to be reduced through this?
PALMER: The details of how this money is going to be distributed – the next stage – that’s the exciting stage and where we work from from here. But it’s important to remember that this money is tied to outcomes. It is tied to educational outcomes. It is tied to ensuring children that are falling behind are picked up, scooped up and that they have the opportunity to ensure that they are on the same trajectory to success as any other student. This money is tied to wellbeing, to ensuring that we have students that have, you know, access to speech pathologists, access to social workers. This money is tied to our workforce.
So much in the education space depends on us having a vibrant and happy workforce. So, we know that we need to invest in that to ensure that our principals are resourced, to ensure that we have professional development right across our workforce. This money is clearly tied to those outcomes. And so, when we’re looking at how this needs to be spent or any reforms that we’re going to make in Tasmania, we know that they are clearly the areas that the Federal Government has said they want this to be focused on.
JOURNALIST: So, we can have faith that we’re not just going to be throwing more money at the same old problem? Because we’re not just doing worse compared to the rest of the country; we’re doing worse compared to ourselves.
PALMER: This money is an absolute game changer because this is not about band-aids to fix problems. This is about an opportunity to be fully resourced to 100 per cent, which enables us to look at real reform across the education space. And this ties in so beautifully with our education review that’s underway at the moment, with our independent review of Vicki Baylis. She is looking very directly at some of the issues that we have here in Tasmania, and we’re very much looking forward to getting the outcomes of her review at the end of the year. So that’s going to come at a perfect time, just as the money starts to flow through. Very exciting opportunities. It feels like the stars are aligning for us here in Tasmania and I’m very excited about what the next five years will look like.
JOURNALIST: Just to clarify: will this be, as you mentioned, outcome-based funding for the schools in the public system, or will it be needs based? And if it’s outcomes based, what will that mean for schools that are perhaps not getting the student outcomes that they perhaps want and should be getting?
PALMER: This is not about a big stick on schools; this is about a journey. This is about taking our workforce, our families, our communities on a journey that sees real educational outcomes. And we know where there are good educational outcomes, you know, we know the benefits to our economy. We know the benefits to the health of families and children right across the state. This money is about offering hope and inspiration and the possibility for real reform right across Tasmania, which is what makes it such an historic moment for all of us here.
JOURNALIST: And you mentioned that there’s a review coming up –
JOURNALIST: How will a – how would a change in the Federal Government affect this agreement, or would it not make a difference?
PALMER: Let me introduce Minister Clare.
CLARE: Can I underline a couple of points that Jo made, which are really –
JOURNALIST: What was the question?
CLARE: The question was how would a change in Federal Government impact this –
PALMER: If there was a change –
JOURNALIST: Okay.
CLARE: I’ll answer that as well, but also Jo made a couple of points that are really important to underline – and that is that the money starts to flow from January next year. And that Tasmania gets to that full Gonski funding level by January of 2026. Now, to put that in perspective, that means that Tasmania, along with Western Australia, will be the first states in the country that hit that hundred per cent David Gonski funding level – ahead of the rest of the country. So, no doubt about it, Tassie is the big winner here. The first in the country to hit that hundred per cent David Gonski level, and that’s a big deal. And the no disadvantage clause is there, it’s real. It means that Tasmania cannot lose here. It’s the kids that win.
We know how important it is to tie the funding to real reform. One of the things that’s in this deal that hasn’t been in previous Gonski funding deals is tying the funding to reform. That’s why this has taken a bit longer, because we’ve done the work to identify what are the reforms that we think are going to make a real difference here. And they’re all set out in the bilateral agreement that we’re going to sign today.
The question from the phone was what if there’s a change of government. To lock this in I’ve got to change the law. And so, there’s a Bill in the Parliament right now that allows the Commonwealth Government to fulfil the obligations we make today, to increase funding to public schools. At the moment the Australian Education Act says that I can’t provide Jo, I can’t provide states across the country, with any more than 20 per cent of the Gonski funding level for public schools. The legislation that’s in the Parliament turns that ceiling into a floor, so it will enable me to provide additional funding.
And not just that – that Bill has a ratchet clause in it that says that the deal we sign today can’t be undone by a future government unless they totally rip up the current Australian Education Act. So, the Bill is in the Parliament. It will make its way through the House of Representatives hopefully next week and to the Senate in November in time for the money to flow from January next year. And I’m very hopeful that it will get the support of all sides of the parliament.
JOURNALIST: Yeah, do you know how much support it does have from people from all sides of politics?
CLARE: Not yet. The Bill has just been introduced, and we’ll wait for contributions from the opposition and from the crossbench. The point I would make is the point I made in the Parliament when I introduced this Bill – and that is that anyone that supports more money going into public schools should vote for this Bill.
JOURNALIST: Minister, what do you make of some of the other states that are holding out on this deal, pushing for further funding? And if more funding is given to those states and Tasmania’s is eventually topped up in line with those, will that sort of delay the rollout of funding?
CLARE: Nothing will delay the rollout of funding for Tasmania. We’re signing the deal today to start the extra money from January next year and fully funded from January of 2026. So that money starts to flow in just over two months. Tasmanian public schools are fully funded in just over 12 months.
I’ve got $16 billion on the table to work with all the states and territories across the country to get this done right across the country. But to get this done, we need to do in other parts of the country what we’re doing here, which is state and federal government working together, state and federal government chipping in together. If we work together, we can get this done. And today’s deal is proof of that.
JOURNALIST: The AEU says that it’s not full funding of Gonski and they say that that’s misleading. Do you agree?
CLARE: No, I don’t. They’re talking about this 4 per cent funding which gets invested here in Tasmania amongst other things on buses to help bring children to and from school. This is about that missing 5 per cent. Now, when I took on the job of Minister for Education a bit over two years ago, my initial briefing notes made the point to me the Commonwealth puts in 20 per cent, the states put in 75 per cent and then there’s a missing 5 per cent. Now, we’ve got to fill that gap. That’s what this deal does. Tasmania’s at that 75 per cent level now. So are many other states. We’ve been able to do a deal with Western Australia and with the Northern Territory. And I want to be able to do a deal with other states and territories right across the country. But to get this done it requires us to both chip in. And today’s deal is proof of that.
JOURNALIST: As I said earlier, obviously Tassie is spending a lot on each student – more than other states. Are you concerned that more funding won’t necessarily lead to better outcomes, because it doesn’t seem to be working.
CLARE: There are some people who say money doesn’t matter. And then there are other people who say money is the only thing that matters. The truth is that you need investment and reform. And the funding helps to implement the reform. Remember what I talked about this money doing – helping children who have fallen behind with catch-up tutoring, where you get them out of a class of 30 into a class of four or five to help them catch up. Now, you need extra investment to employ people to do that work. So, money is important, but how you invest it, what you invest it in is just as important.
This is funding linked to real, practical reforms to help children who fall behind to catch up. The thing that keeps me up at night is that the percentage of kids finishing high school is now going down, right across the country. And particularly in public schools. It’s dropped from about 83 per cent to 73 per cent in the last seven or eight years. And if you have a look at the data that Jo and I and others get to see all the time, you can draw a line between that and problems that emerge early in primary school. Children who the NAPLAN data tells us are behind the minimum standard when they’re eight years old, most of those children never catch up by the time they’re 15 years old at high school. And they’re the children who don’t finish high school.
If you intervene early when children are, really early – and by that, I mean checking when children are 6 or 5 about their literacy and numeracy skills and intervening then, long before they sit that first NAPLAN test – you’ve got a greater chance of helping them to catch up. Because if they’re behind early, that gap in the amount of distance between them and other children in the classroom gets bigger and bigger and bigger with every year. So early intervention critical. That’s what this funding is about.
JOURNALIST: Several universities are increasing next year’s tuition fees for international students twice as fast as inflation. Are your student caps to blame?
CLARE: They’re a matter for individual universities about what they charge international students. I’ve made it very clear and make no apology for the fact that the Government wants to return migration levels to pre-pandemic levels. And part of that is returning international student numbers to roughly the sort of numbers they were before the pandemic.
The main job of our universities is to educate Aussies, to make sure that more Australians get a crack at going to university. That’s my focus. That’s what the Universities Accord is all about. I want to thank Rufus and the team at UTAS who are backing the reforms that are in that Parliament to set those caps right now.
What I want to achieve as Education Minister is to help more young people from poor backgrounds, from the regions to get a crack at university, to get through school, to be able to go to TAFE or go to university. And that’s what the Accord reforms are all about. That’s the main job of our universities.
JOURNALIST: But you’re concerned, I guess, that those fees are a reaction to the student caps? I mean, no-one wants to walk out with a massive HECS debt.
CLARE: These aren’t about HECS debts. International students are not eligible for HECS.
JOURNALIST: I’ve just got a double-header for Jo, just very quickly before we might wrap up. In terms of priorities, you mentioned that there’s a review that’s coming up that’s going to help sort of guide your next steps and decisions. But do you have an idea of what your priorities will be with this new funding package, where it will go in our public school system? And how are we looking in terms of teacher numbers, salaries? Are we doing enough to attract and retain teachers here?
PALMER: Yeah, quite a number of elements to your question. I’ll try to remember them all. If we start with workforce retention and workforce attraction, we know right across Australia that there are issues with retaining teachers and with attracting people to this profession. So here in Tasmania we’ve had quite a focus on that, especially in our hard-to-staff schools and in our remote schools, where we’re offering incentives to teachers to encourage them to go to those remote areas such as Flinders Island, King Island, the west coast of Tasmania where we know it’s remote and there are issues and it’s complicated for teachers perhaps to commit there long term. So, we have incentives for that.
We also have incentives for our teachers to attract them to our hard-to-staff schools, schools that might have trouble with a turnover of teachers. So, we’re certainly investing in those schools, in the remote parts of Tasmania and in the hard-to-staff parts as well.
I think it’s really important that I keep drawing you back to the fact that this money is linked to reforms. We have worked as states and territories with the Commonwealth Government. We have taken the advice of some of the best educators across the country who have said here is where you can have real influence, here is if you get this right, you’re going to see those educational outcomes across the country. And for us, those educational outcomes and wellbeing outcomes right across our state.
So, when we look at how this money needs to be spent and where it needs to be spent, we are looking at where the money is tied to in those reforms, but we’re also going to be looking at, you know, what comes from our educational independent review into education with Vicki Baylis. We’ll be looking at what specifically does she identify as areas of need in Tasmania. And I can assure you, they’re going to link into the reforms because the reforms are based on workforce, and we know that we need to be investing in our workforce. The reforms are based on wellbeing. We want to see happy, thriving children who are safe and known and that school is a wonderful safe and vibrant place for them. And we want to see those educational outcomes changed.
So, this is an exciting time. This is a time when we can be considering reform because we have worked together with the Federal Government to see this huge injection – millions of dollars – into our public schools which actually absolutely opens the gateway for us to be inspirational in our thinking about public education in Tasmania.