PRIVATE MEMBERS' BUSINESS

Ms LAWRENCE (Hasluck) (19:00): Every child in Australia deserves a world-class education because talent is spread evenly but opportunity is not. In Hasluck, I see the striving of our educators every week. I see it in the primary schools, like Herne Hill Primary School and in Camboon Primary School, where school communities are building confidence from the earliest years and where assemblies, flag presentations and school visits are reminders that public education is deeply connected to community pride.

I see it at the Arbour Grove Primary School, where civic life starts early, and at Morley Senior High School and Ellenbrook Secondary College, where Anzac commemorations teach service, sacrifice and responsibility. I see it at Aveley Secondary College, serving one of the fastest growing parts of my electorate, with young people looking to academic pathways, vocational education and the jobs of the future.

I see it at Governor Stirling High School, where specialist programming in engineering, arts and media and AFL sit alongside strong vocational opportunities. And I see it at Hampton Senior High School, with specialist programs in dance, performing arts and digital technologies and support for students with autism. I see it at Ellenbrook Primary School, where the intensive English language centre is helping newly arrived children build the language skills and the confidence they need to participate fully in school life.

The same striving is there at the independent schools. At Swan Valley Anglican Community School, the new Collaboration and Creativity Centre is providing modern learning spaces for information technology, art, textiles and media and general learning, and that program was supported by $1 million Albanese government capital grants program contribution because this government supports all endeavours that are practical, student focused and needs based.

At Swan Christian College, the school life is grounded in values, service and community. I got to feel it firsthand when they visited just last week here at parliament, and the nature of their questions was telling of those values. It was a really special moment.

At Indie School Midland, a curriculum and re-engagement in education, CARE, school, young people who have not always found their place in mainstream schooling are being given another chance through flexible learning, VET pathways and individual support. Let us be clear, Labor absolutely supports choice. We support parents, and we support students in government schools, Catholic schools, independent schools, specialist schools, special assistance schools and schools serving children with disability or disadvantage.

What we reject is the Liberal Party's narrow version of choice—choice only for those who can afford it and choice only where families have the money, the transport, the time and the postcode to make choice real. That is not genuine choice. That is selective opportunity dressed up as some sort of principle.

A fair education system cannot say to one child that they get opportunity because their parents can pay and to another child that they get whatever is left over. That is not the Australian way, and it is certainly not the Labor way. That is why the Albanese government has delivered one of the most significant school funding reforms in a generation.

Nationally, the Commonwealth is providing recurrent funding for every student enrolled at school—government, Catholic and independent. In 2026, that is estimated at about $33.3 billion across all sectors, and, through the Better and Fairer Schools Agreement, we are putting public schools across the country on a path to full and fair funding, with an estimated $16½ billion in additional Commonwealth investment over the decade.

Western Australia and the Cook Labor government is firmly at the front of that change. Our agreement has already lifted WA schools to 100 per cent of the school resourcing standard. This matters in Hasluck.

It means more support for students who need help catching up. It means more early literacy and numeracy checks. It means small-group tutoring, wellbeing support, more help for teachers and better pathways into the teaching profession.

It matters because public schools carry a universal obligation. They educate everyone who walks through the gate. They are there for children with disability, children learning English, children from low-income households, children in crisis, children in remote and regional communities, and children whose parents simply want a good school.

So when those opposite come in here claiming to champion choice, I say this: if you believe in choice then fund the choice that most families rely upon—the local public school. And if you believe in fairness, do not pit sectors against each other while defending a system where opportunity too often follows capacity to pay. Now what we have is what real choice looks like and that's what fairness looks like, and that is what this government is delivering.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: The time allotted for this debate has expired.