Brian Mitchell (Lyons, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Sixty million dollars—that is the gap in schools funding in Tasmania in 2018-19 between the Liberals and Labor. The Liberals will not invest $60 million in Tasmanian schools, but Labor will. Sixty million dollars is real money. It would make a real difference in every Tasmanian school and would benefit every Tasmanian school child. Nationally, the school education funding gap between the Liberals and Labor over the Gonski years is $30 billion. That is a huge gap; it is a nation-changing gap. It is not just a chasm in funding; it is a chasm of priorities.

The Liberals went to the 2013 election with a bipartisan pledge on Gonski. I note the member for Maranoa is still in the chamber, wishing for bipartisanship again. After the last example, maybe we will think twice. A week out from the election they promised they would match Labor's funding in 2013 'dollar for dollar', but after the election that lie was exposed. They abandoned bipartisanship, they abandoned Australian families and they slashed $30 billion from Gonski. You have to wonder about the priorities of a Prime Minister who says $30 billion is too much to spend on schools, but he is happy to spend $50 billion on handouts for corporations and banks. This is a Prime Minister whose priority is bankers, not Australian school children. The priorities of this Prime Minister and this government are wrong, but they are not the priorities of the Australian people.

Australian parents want their children to have the best education this nation can afford. Australian parents want more teachers in schools, more speech pathologists, more computer coding, more languages, more music programs, more numeracy and literacy programs.

See this speech in context