Victorian Certificate of Applied Learning: Funding

It is a pleasure to rise to speak on this matter of public importance. People from both sides of the house know just how important education is. Education is the cornerstone of ensuring that our young people have the opportunities to succeed. When we talk about VCAL we are talking about a program that provides practical, hands-on experience to our young people and provides opportunities for them to learn and to find jobs and pursue further options in life. This MPI is based on deceit and shows the desperate trickery the Labor Party is willing to undertake in this Parliament. We have just heard from the member for Narre Warren South, who said there will be a $50 million cut to VCAL. However, the matter of public importance the opposition has brought to the house today cites a $48 million cut to VCAL. In 10 minutes we have lost $2 million.

That demonstrates just how loose the opposition is with funds. In 10 minutes we have lost $2 million. If you want to extrapolate those funds -- --

Extrapolating those figures shows the mess the opposition has left us in and the reasons why we are here cleaning up the mess. I only have to mention the desalination plant, myki, the rail link and the fact that Labor has robbed Victorian families of $3 billion in one go with the pokie licences. Now on top of that we stand to lose a further $4.1 billion in GST funding and other revenue because of Labor's inaction.

Their mismanagement of funds is reflected by their hypocritical stance on this matter and their willingness to stand up and say this now, when we need to do what we have to do to ensure that great programs like VCAL continue to exist. We need to take these steps because of the mismanagement of the previous government in order to ensure that it can continue.

I would like to emphasise the importance of the VCAL program. VCAL is a great program that offers many young people opportunities to succeed. We have over 18 000 students involved in the VCAL program, and we have over 400 providers here in Victoria that administer it. Let me be clear: there is no reduction in student funding for VCAL and no reduction at the coalface. We are in fact increasing funding for VCAL because of the extra money for student additions.

We heard earlier a number of points from the member for Niddrie. He used a whole lot of analogies.

He said that VCAL coordination is like having tea without a tea bag. He said it is like drinking hot water. I do not mind hot water, and I am sure that there are many others who do not mind hot water.

Let us talk analogies. When you build a building you include supports and you include scaffolding. Once you have built the building, you do not keep the scaffolding and the supports around the building. You take them away, let the building stand and continue to build other buildings. That is what this is all about. We have got a great program in VCAL. We are investing in VCAL, and we are ensuring that it grows. What we have taken away is not the funding, and we have ensured that this program continues to succeed. VCAL continues to be funded through the student resource package (SRP). SRP funding has increased by 8.5 per cent in 2010 -- --

We expect enrolments to be higher again in 2011. This change to VCAL brings vocational education and training in schools into line with Victorian certificate of education programs, which do not receive additional funding for coordination. These are all great programs. They should all be funded in schools, but they do not all have additional programs for coordination. Schools and other providers will continue to be supported. We are proud of the fact that we provide and will continue to provide options for young people in schools.

I want to draw the house's attention particularly to the coalition government's support for disengaged students, because this is really the coalface of many of these problems. The Minister for Education announced in the recent budget $1 million over the next three years to look at ways of getting disengaged students back into the system. This will allow many of those young people to have opportunities to get involved. We have provided $700 million in additional funding for schools.

As I said earlier, education is the cornerstone, and in our first budget we are delivering on our election commitments.

We have provided a 3 per cent increase in funding for education despite Labor Party mismanagement and despite the $4.1 billion loss to GST revenue funds. In schools we are investing $200 million in capital works on top of the $760 million in new initiatives. We are putting an extra $100 million into school maintenance, including cleaning up utilities in Building the Education Revolution buildings. We are ensuring that the BER buildings, which the previous Labor budgets neglected, are being maintained. I will reflect on BER a little bit, because again here is a fine example of a mess that the previous government left us in.

Of course they love it. $3.27 billion has been spent on these school halls, and at the same time we have had 33 adjournment matters raised by the opposition about wanting funding for their schools. There have been 33 adjournment matters calling for funding! Guess what? Opposition members had 11 years to do something about their halls, and they did absolutely zero.

We have had so many requests in this Parliament. Today we had the member for Greensborough calling for more funding for his electorate. The opposition members had time to deal with these things when they were in government, but all they did was waste money and, more importantly, waste opportunities in those 11 years. It is hypocritical of them to stand up here and talk about any form of funding they require for their schools when they did absolutely nothing when they were in government. I would suggest that they should be sitting back, waiting and giving us 11 years to see what we can do. I can assure you that with better management we will do a damn sight better than what they did in their term.

As I said, education is paramount. We are addressing Labor's failure to invest in such programs as maths and science in Victorian schools. We will invest about $30 million to provide 100 maths and science specialist teachers to work in primary schools to help kids and teachers. We will also fund 400 scholarships for science graduates to become teachers in Victorian schools in the next generation.

In our first budget we have made the largest single investment in special and autistic schools in over a decade, with $65 million in funding provided in the 2011-12 budget for 11 schools. The coalition is reaching out to the people the Labor Party abandoned and investing in the basic services they need. We are making these investments while cleaning up the 11 years of waste and while returning Victoria to a sustainable financial setting.

This government cares about Victorian families, this government cares about young people and this government wants to ensure that our young people have the opportunity for success that is provided by a great education system, one they deserve.