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2011
THE PARLIAMENT OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
SCHOOLS ASSISTANCE Amendment (Financial Assistance) Bill 2011
EXPLANATORY MEMORANDUM
(Circulated by authority of the
Minister for School Education, Early Childhood and Youth,
the Honourable Peter Garrett, AM MP)
SCHOOLS Assistance Amendment (FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE) Bill 2011
OUTLINE
The purpose of this Bill is to amend the funding arrangements under the
Schools Assistance Act 2008 (the Act), which currently provides financial
assistance for
non-government primary and secondary education until the end of 2012.
The Bill amends the Act to extend the existing funding arrangements,
including indexation arrangements, until the end of 2013 and for Grants for
Capital Expenditure until the end of 2014. This will ensure funding
certainty for all Catholic and independent schools. It will also ensure
funding is available to provide and improve school capital infrastructure,
particularly for the most educationally disadvantaged students, in the 2013
and 2014 program years.
The Bill will enable the Commonwealth to continue to provide Capital Grants
to supplement funds provided by the state and territory education
authorities and funds provided by non-government school authorities, who
have the responsibility of providing, maintaining and upgrading schools in
the non-government sector.
FINANCIAL IMPACT
The Bill provides for the appropriation of approximately $8.2 billion in
2012-13 and $8.9 billion in 2013-14 for non-government schooling under the
Act. This supports the capital and operating costs of non-government
primary and secondary schools. These amounts include appropriations for
Grants for Capital Expenditure and related purposes of nearly $142.1
million in 2012 -13 and $144.2 million in 2013-14.
Current resourcing for non-government schools are in the Forward Estimates
for 2012-13 and 2013-14. There is no financial impact over and above
current resourcing.
SchoolS Assistance Amendment (FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE) Bill 2011
NOTES ON CLAUSES
Clause 1 - Short title
Provides that this Act may be cited as the Schools Assistance Amendment
(Financial Assistance) Act 2011.
Clause 2 - Commencement
Provides that this Act commences on the day after this Act receives the
Royal Assent.
Clause 3 - Schedule(s)
Provides that each Act that is specified in a Schedule is amended or
repealed as set out in the applicable items in the Schedule and that any
other item in a Schedule has effect according to its terms.
For ease of description, this explanatory memorandum uses the following
abbreviation:
'the Act' means the Schools Assistance Act 2008.
Schedule 1-Financial assistance
Schools Assistance Act 2008
Item 1 - Title
Item 1 omits the words, "for 2009 to 2012", from the title of the Act and
substitutes the words, "from 2009".
Item 2 - Subsection 3(3)
Item 2 repeals and substitutes new subsection 3(3) of the Act. Subsection
3(3) of the Act sets out the program years in respect of which financial
assistance may be paid under the Act.
Under this amendment, new paragraph 3(3)(a) provides that financial
assistance in relation to recurrent expenditure and targeted expenditure
may be paid for the 2009 to 2013 (inclusive) program years.
New paragraph 3(3)(b) provides that financial assistance in relation to
capital expenditure may be paid for the 2009 to 2014 (inclusive) program
years.
Item 3 - Section 4 (definition of program year)
Item 3 repeals and inserts into section 4 a new definition of the term
program year.
Item 3 provides differential definitions of program year. Under new
paragraph (a), program year is defined to mean the 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012
or 2013 calendar year.
New paragraph (b) provides that the definition of program year in relation
to financial assistance for capital expenditure means the 2009, 2010, 2011,
2012, 2013 or 2014 calendar year.
Item 4
Section 71 sets out the maximum funding amount of Indigenous Funding
Guarantee which may be paid to the States under section 70 of the Act in
respect of each program year. Section 70 provides that the Minister may
authorise payment of financial assistance to a State for recurrent
expenditure in relation to Indigenous students receiving education at a non-
systemic school, or at schools that are members of an approved school, in
the State for a program year.
Item 4 inserts new table item 5 to provide that the maximum funding amount
of Indigenous Funding Guarantee in respect of the 2013 program year is
$3,500,000.