00:00 The current situation is that 98% of public schools across the nation are underfunded.
00:07 They've not reached the national schooling resource standard, which is the minimum benchmark
00:11 of funding.
00:12 The Parliamentary Budget Office released costings on this a couple of weeks back and we know
00:18 that it's around $1.8 billion on average in the lead up to 2028 for the Commonwealth share
00:27 with respect to the schooling resource standard.
00:30 So it's a big number.
00:31 What are the priorities on the list where funding is most urgently needed?
00:35 Is it more teachers, more student support?
00:40 Well we know that across the nation we've got teachers and principals who've got escalating
00:45 workloads.
00:46 We've got students who need that extra one on one support and when you deliver full funding
00:51 you actually create the opportunity for every child to succeed at their education.
00:57 And we've been waiting now for over a decade since the original Gonski review for governments
01:01 to get together and deliver this funding.
01:03 We have a commitment from the Albanese government for a pathway to that funding but what we're
01:08 saying very clearly now is that the time is now.
01:11 Over the life of these next school funding agreements we have to achieve this for public
01:15 schools, we have to achieve it for our students and for the teachers in their communities.
01:20 And you say you want the Commonwealth contribution to rise from 20% of the schooling resource
01:25 standard to 25% for all states and to 40% for the Northern Territory.
01:31 Why so much more for the NT?
01:33 Well the situation in the Northern Territory is such that they have the highest needs.
01:38 They are in the unfortunate situation where the vast majority of the schooling resource
01:44 standard has not been achieved and we see one in five students in the Northern Territory
01:49 who are effectively unfunded.
01:51 That is going to require a greater lift in terms of the share for the Northern Territory.
01:58 So if funding is so low in public schools how are principals managing to keep the doors
02:02 open?
02:04 We've just conducted a survey called State of Our Schools which is an annual survey that
02:08 we take every year with our members and we know that 90% of principals have told us that
02:14 they've got significant workforce shortages.
02:17 But you know the goodwill of the profession is high and teachers and principals across
02:22 the nation work very hard to deliver a high quality education.
02:26 But they're doing that on limited resources and it is time now for the Commonwealth and
02:30 the state and territory governments to join together and deliver the promise that was
02:33 made to the children of Australia and that's full funding for public schools.
02:37 So you're launching the campaign today.
02:39 Have you had any response yet from the federal government?
02:42 Are you due to have meetings with the minister?
02:45 We're here at Parliament House today.
02:47 We've got principals and teachers with a large lobbying contingent and we will be meeting
02:52 with the minister, we'll be meeting with other parliamentarians and we'll be giving them
02:56 a clear plan which is about investing in Australia's future so that every child can have the success
03:02 with their education that they rightly deserve.
03:04 [BLANK_AUDIO]
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