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

Of course they had no money, as the member for Bowman correctly interjects. It was just a complete, absolute con. If those opposite want to come into this parliament and say, 'We will spend more money than the coalition,' that would be a fair enough debating point and we in the coalition would accept that. But they are not saying that; they are going around pretending that there are cuts to schools. We heard it. The member for Lindsay came into this chamber earlier today and went through a list of schools in her electorate—as we heard from the member for Cunningham—and talked about cuts to those schools. Those opposite are unnecessarily misleading not only the schoolchildren and the parents but the teachers at those schools.

Let me go through the member for Lindsay's electorate. In 2017, the current year, spending in Lindsay will be $147,364,000. Remember that the member for Lindsay walked in here and said that there were cuts to all these schools in her electorate, when spending in her electorate increases to $154,184,000. That is an increase of 4.63 per cent—an extra $6,820,000. The member for Lindsay came into this chamber and misled students and parents about cuts, when the truth is that there is $6.8 million in extra money going into Lindsay.

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