Kate Ellis (Adelaide, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Education) Share this | Hansard source

Those opposite apparently do not want to talk about schools and are asking me to go on to higher education. I am not surprised that you do not want to talk about schools because you know that schools are angry, you know that parents are angry, you know that teachers are angry. And it is not just because of the Prime Minister's duplicity and deliberate deception, although of course those are reasons enough for a great deal of anger, but it is because of the very real impacts that this government's budget will have in classrooms right across Australia: cuts to extension programs, cuts to literacy and numeracy programs, subject choices gone, sport and music options gone, remedial support gone, support for students with a disability just not there. And not in four years time, as some on the government backbench seem to be reassuring themselves: 'None of this is real yet. It is just something we are saying we'll do later.'

The Prime Minister is goading state premiers into making cuts to our schools right now. Those opposite do not have to believe Labor spokespeople on that, you can listen to your own Liberal counterparts. In New South Wales, Mike Baird described the budget as a 'kick in the guts'. Campbell Newman—not somebody that I would readily quote to agree with much that he has to say—has come out publicly warning that ratings agencies are on the phone looking at state budgets now and that they need to look at the savings they will make. States are being pressured to cut early and to cut hard by this Prime Minister and by all of those that sit opposite defending this disgusting budget. The Prime Minister has helped the states and territories put aside their differences and band together because they have common enemy, and that is this government that is walking away from school funding reform, that is walking away from the opportunity for us to implement the solutions that we know our school system needs.

This is a cowardly, low-rent, hard-cutting and unfair budget. On this side of the House we will not stand for it. We believe that circumstances of birth should not determine destiny. We believe that it is the size of a person's brain, not the weight of their wallet, that matters. We believe that country kids should not be allowed to continue to fall behind city kids when it comes to their schools and their educational attainment. We believe that the two-and-a-half-year gap between the least well-off and the most well-off students is a blight on our country and a threat to our future. We absolutely believe in needs-based funding; that, no matter what school, no matter what schooling sector, no matter what state or territory, every child in this nation should be able to rely on this parliament to make sure that their school is a great school.

This would not be so appalling if we did not have the solutions; but we do. We have just gone through that process. This government can offer no excuse for throwing away the educational opportunities of young Australians and doing so while still putting aside over $20 billion to give to millionaires to have a baby. This is wrong priorities, and we oppose it every step of the way. (Time expired)

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