Craig Kelly (Hughes, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

One of the most important lessons we can teach our children is how to identify a scam. In our society today there are many scam artists, there are many people running deceptions and there are many people telling outright lies. The ACCC even has a website called Scamwatch. On it, they have details of the Nigerian scam, the fake charity scam, the inheritance scam, dating and romance scams, false billing scams and up-front fee and advance payment frauds. But what they should add to that list is the Labor Party's fraudulent campaign on education and school funding in this nation; it is nothing but a complete and utter untruth which has been repeated by member after member coming into this chamber and claiming that there are cuts to school funding. The disgraceful performance of the Labor Party—scaring schoolchildren, scaring parents, misleading them with false information about cuts which simply do not exist—is a scandal and a shame and you should all stand up and apologise for it.

Let's go through some of the facts. People may not believe me—they have heard different things from Labor Party members talking about cuts and they have heard the truth from the outside—but let's go through the actual facts of what is happening with federal government funding to schools so that we can dispel the myths and the untruths and the sophistry of the Labor members in this debate. Firstly, let's look back. Between 1987-88 and 2011-12, total public funding for schools has doubled in real terms. During that period, we have had a doubling of funding in real terms—that is, over and above the rate of inflation—yet we have had only an 18 per cent increase in enrolments. We have had an 18 per cent increase in enrolments and a doubling of funding over and above inflation. Total combined Commonwealth and state funding has grown in real terms per student by 15 per cent over the 10-year period from 2005-06 to 2014-15. In that period, there was an increase in enrolments of 15.4 per cent.

When the coalition came to government after the glory years of the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd government, in our first year, Commonwealth spending on schools was $13.94 billion. In 2015, we increased that by 8.7 per cent. In the following year we increased it again, by 7.4 per cent. In 2017, the latest year, we have increased it to 17.76 per cent, another eight per cent increase. So let's be very clear: this government is spending record amounts on school funding. We are spending close to 40 per cent more than the last budget of the Gillard-Rudd government, when they were in power. And they come in here and complain about cuts when we in the coalition are spending 40 per cent more than they did! That is an absolute fact, yet these Labor members, one after another, roll into this place and talk about cuts.

How have they done this? Where does this sophistry come from? There is an acorn of truth in their deception and sophistry. If we go back to the original Gonski funding, it was over six years. In our budgets, we have a forward estimates period of four years; for anything outside of that four-year period you do not have to account for where the money comes from. If we look at the original Gonski funding, in those first years there were reasonable increases; but the real increases were backloaded into the fifth and sixth year so they did not have to show the public where the money was coming from.

See this speech in context