STATEMENTS BY SENATORS: EDUCATION, FUNDING

Today I rise with good news. Western Australia, partnering with the Albanese Labor government, will be the first state in our nation to fully fund public schools according to the school resource standards. This means that, as of next year, we are starting with elevating the most disadvantaged public schools in our system to make them fully funded. If you look at how disadvantaged many of these schools have been and are, you will see it will make an enormous difference.

This means that the federal Labor government, the Albanese government, is committed to providing 100 per cent of our share of the schooling resource standard, which is, of course, an estimate of how much funding is needed to meet a student's needs, matched by the Cook Labor government's commitment to meeting the school resource standard.

If we work together, both federal and state levels of government, we can ensure that our students in public schools right around the nation get the best education. It's worth over $770 million of Commonwealth money over the next five years and an equivalent amount by the WA government. We've been working hard to leverage up contributions from the states by saying, 'We will commit to a greater school resource standard from the Commonwealth if the states do their part of the deal.' This is an equivalent of $1.6 billion for Western Australian schools.