Mr. Adam Harris:

I thank the Senator. To begin with, we recognise that demographic change is happening on the ground. Many children who were in primary school are now progressing to secondary school. What is getting lost in that narrative is that it assumes there was sufficient resource in primary school to begin with. From all of our consultations with our members, we know that is overwhelmingly not the case. Resources are being taken out of a system that was already underserved. That is the starting point. On the ERC and exemptions, only about 1% of children qualify for exemptions from those tests. The reality is there are many children in our community who have high support needs in the classroom and will need significant support to access the mainstream curriculum and will also perform very well at those exams. That shows the complexity. To simplify the model in this way disrespects that. That is the important message.

On complex needs, we have been having a rich discussion this morning about what we really mean by that term. We welcome moving to a more progressive framing of that in terms of the UNCRPD. Fundamentally, we are talking about the students with the greatest level of need. The Department has previously clearly defined that but for some reason is now moving away from that. Critically, if the Department would like to get to a point at which there is a shared understanding, the starting point would be to talk to those communities most affected. There has been no such consultation on what defines complex needs.