Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Education, Apprenticeships and Training) Share this | Hansard source

In question time the Deputy Prime Minister said that I had said in a speech in 2006 that primary schools should not receive federal government funding. This is untrue. What I said was:

We should not have to be investing in state run primary schools. We should not have to be creating after-school active programs.

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The missing ingredient in this debate is the fact that the states have allowed their schools to get to the point where parents are demanding action and the Commonwealth feels it has to step in and try to make a difference.

In other words, the Commonwealth is having to pick up the slack and should not have to be doing so.

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