Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Hansard source

Obviously, I am talking about school funding, which is very much relevant to the question I was asked by the member for Port Adelaide. It is passing strange that the Labor Party would want to talk about this subject because it talks again to economic credibility. Where is this apparent $30 billion, this mythical $30 billion, in the future? Where are they going to find that money if indeed they ever commit to it? Where is the $18 billion for foreign aid? They rail against changes to foreign aid, but they do not actually come up with where the source of $18 billion in foreign aid is going to come from. They have a mythical $50 billion change to health funding for public hospitals, but they do not explain where the money is going to come from.

The coalition welcome the debate about economic credibility. We are very pleased to have the political subject back on economic credibility, because we are the party that started restoring the damage left by Labor when they lost office in 2013. For the second time in my political career, we have had to do this job. The first time was the Howard government—of which you, Madam Speaker, were a member. In 1996, we had to restore the finances of the Commonwealth, and did so. And then in 2007, Labor blew it again. In 2013, we were elected to fix the mess that Labor had left us and we are setting about doing just that.

Mr Abbott interjecting—

Of course, as the Prime Minister points out, I am fixing in education what needed to be fixed from the wreckage left by the Labor Party when they lost office. We are not only restoring funding to schools that Labor ripped out, that they trousered from public schools; we are also focusing on what matters, things like the national curriculum, teacher training, independent public schools and parent engagement. That is why every state and territory, Labor and Liberal, have signed up to the independent public schools initiative. I am pleased that Jay Weatherill, the Premier of South Australia, said today:

We've been asking them to canvas the broader range of options. There’s a broad debate going on about Commonwealth/state relations, which is a good thing

I agree with the Premier of South Australia. (Time expired)

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