Northern Territory public schools will receive an extra billion dollars in funding, under a new agreement between the territory and commonwealth governments.
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00:00 So, they've agreed to put an extra billion dollars into the Territory school system.
00:05 They're some of the most underfunded schools in Australia.
00:08 At the moment, they only receive about 80 per cent of what the Gonski review found they
00:12 needed to meet minimum requirements.
00:15 So the Territory and the Commonwealth governments are saying that this is an historic day, that
00:19 they're now going to be funded to that minimal level about 20 years earlier than they otherwise
00:24 would have been.
00:25 So I think they are right that it is a big day, but there are still a lot of questions
00:28 around the fact that many Territory students are so far behind.
00:33 Will getting them up to minimum standard really be enough to do things like changing the really
00:37 poor attendance rates?
00:39 We know something like two-thirds of Indigenous students in the Territory don't finish Year
00:43 12.
00:44 So there's a lot of challenges and a lot of catching up still to do, but overall this
00:48 is a good announcement and good news for the Territory.
00:51 I guess the next question is, Connor, is then what are the other states and Territory going
00:55 to ask for funding in their areas?
00:57 Yeah, absolutely.
00:58 So with the Territory, the Commonwealth share of the schools is now up to 40 per cent.
01:03 With the other states, the biggest states where it's more expensive, Victoria, New South
01:07 Wales, Queensland, the Commonwealth has been resisting going as high as 25 per cent, but
01:12 those states are holding out.
01:14 Those deals will have potentially billions rather than one billion, so five or six billion
01:18 say of extra new spending involved.
01:21 So they are going to be a lot more controversial and if the Commonwealth is going to make that
01:25 spend I think they're going to demand more from the states in terms of control over syllabus
01:30 and curriculum and of course that will then play into local politics in all of those more
01:35 populous states as we come up to an election.
01:37 [BLANK_AUDIO]