Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

And, of course, she is joined by Dianne Foggo, past president of the Australian Education Union, who wrote to the Leader of the Opposition and me. She said, 'It is on the principle of needs based funding into the future that the Turnbull government's bills must be supported. One of my proudest and most humbling honours has been to be made a life member of the AEU and to be a former federal president. I have fought long and hard about making my views public and I do not look forward to the opprobrium I will probably face; however, I cannot, in all conscience, stay silent when there is an opportunity to change the current school-funding regime for a better one.'

Then, of course, we have seen support from across the independent schools system. We have seen support from Martin Hanscamp, the executive officer of the Australian Association of Christian Schools. We have seen Pam Betts, from Brisbane Catholic Education, saying, 'We thank the federal government for its continuing support.'

The reality is, Labor knows full well that what we have delivered with our schools funding package is a funding package that focuses not on union officials, not on politicians, not on bureaucrats; it focuses on the children. It focuses on getting fair and transparent funding for our children—

Mr Khalil interjecting—

See this speech in context