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1. What was proposedJo ClayGreens · Crossbench
   Read the original wording (490 words)

   That this Assembly: (1) notes that: (a) in the February 2025 school census, 50,159 students were enrolled in ACT public schools; (b) the February 2026 Report on Government Services (RoGS) shows the Government in 2023-2024 spent $1,119,399,000 on government schools, equating to an ACT Government spend of $22,265 per student in that year; (c) the same RoGS report shows the Government subsidised non-government schools with $70,645,000 across 32,378 students, equating to an ACT Government spend of $2,182 per student; (d) the Canberra Institute of Technology (CIT) 2025 annual report shows 17,000 course enrolments; (e) the ACT’s primary and secondary schools and the CIT serve a NSW population that use services in the ACT but pay rates, car registration, stamp duty and other taxes and levies in NSW; (f) many cross-border developments in NSW do not include schools because residents use ACT schools (though NSW Government has recently built public schools at Murrumbateman, Jerrabomberra and Bungendore), which encourages the climate and environmental impacts of cross-border sprawl and means ACT ratepayers subsidise NSW developments; (g) the Eslake report notes that in contrast to health services, the NSW Government does not contribute to the costs of ACT public education and also notes that the Commonwealth Grants Commission takes this into account in assessing the ACT’s expenditure needs but does not provide details on how much the ACT loses in funding from this arrangement; and (h) when asked why the ACT does not get a contribution for NSW students in ACT primary and secondary schools and CIT, the Minister for Education and Early Childhood advised it was a historical arrangement and the Government had not raised it in cross-border collaborations; (2) further notes that the ACT is uniquely and disproportionately impacted by the obligation to provide education services to students whose households do not pay ACT rates because they live in NSW or do not pay payroll taxes because their household employment is with the Australian Public Service. There is no other Australian jurisdiction with such a disproportionate fiscal disadvantage, faced with the costs of educating such a high ratio of non-resident students; and (3) calls on the Government to: (a) fully cost the amount the ACT Government is spending on NSW students in primary and secondary ACT government and non-government schools and detail existing arrangements for CIT; (b) fully cost the allowance the Commonwealth Grants Commission makes to the ACT for this expenditure; (c) invoice NSW Government on a cost recovery basis, including capital and depreciation, for all NSW students attending educational institutions receiving ACT Government funding from Term 3 onwards; (d) pursue an update to the Chief Minister and Premier signed ACT and NSW Memorandum of Understanding for Regional Collaboration to create an ongoing mechanism for payment via the next Senior Officials Dialogue on Regional Collaboration; and (e) report back and table all correspondence and replies and explain representations made by Ministers and officials to the Assembly by 15 September 2026. Debate ensued.

2. What the Assembly decidedAgreed

   Decided on the voices: no individual votes were recorded, so this doesn’t show that every MLA agreed.