Emma Husar (Lindsay, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is interesting to follow the member for Berowra because what he talks about is the government's failure to be transparent with the people of this country, and they have been pretty shameful thus far, so on school funding I am not surprised—although, so has their competence and their ability to be fair.

In an extraordinary decision to reduce school funding by $22 billion, this government is condemning thousands and thousands of schoolchildren around this country to a lower educational outcome. They are being neither transparent nor fair about what they are planning to do, and I note the comments of those education experts in the media. Many of them, who are conservative commentators, say funding in schools does not matter. The interjection from the minister at the table earlier said that funding did not actually matter. I note the comments of those people, so I am going to speak really slowly and I am going to try and reduce the number of syllables and ask them this: they say school funding does not matter, so, if it is not about the dollars and not about the outcomes that are linked to being well-funded and well-resourced, what do you expect our teachers to do with thin air? What outcomes can you achieve with less money?

This government wants to give The Kings School, a very elite private school where parents are paying $28,000 per year, a funding increase of $19 million—and they tell me funding does not matter. Why are parents paying $28,000 a year to send their children there? Yet it wants to cut opportunities for kids in my Western Sydney community by $23 million, in every one of the 43 public schools I proudly represent. In the Cranebrook area, kids are facing more than $2.5 million of cuts—schools in the area that have high needs and low means; students facing complex issues, where kids need investment. This is not The King's School. These are schools like so many others around the country whose electorates support diverse communities.

Next year, the number of students with disability who need support will jump and, to respond to this, the Turnbull government is increasing funding by a tiny 3.1 per cent. On average, that means that, under the Turnbull government's policy, support for students with a disability will plummet by 50 per cent per student. One of those students will be my son. He is doing well in his public school because of the investment in his education, because of the additional support that funding brings. It is not thin air he receives as support, but aid time, programs and one-on-one support. So many kids with a disability have done better because of the support they have received. This will have a positive economic outcome when they are employable post-school and when they are not claiming a disability support pension. The government seems so hell-bent on demeaning anybody who needs that pension. Backing in needs-based education funding also supports the vital work of the NDIS. We all know this government cares so much about the NDIS! They were all here championing the need for everyone to contribute. Yet, here we are: they are actively undermining it by cutting needs-based funding. Where is the commonsense on the part of this government to understand the link between supporting kids with a disability through the NDIS and early intervention, and then following that support into the school system where it is critical that those children who require learning support are able to access it? That is what needs based is about.

The government would not have a clue. They do not get it. They would rather offer their big business mates a $65 billion tax handout on the backs of schoolkids across this country. They come in here and, in their Dorothy Dixers at question time, ask, hilariously—it is great entertainment for us, by the way, guys: 'Are you aware of any alternative approaches?' Well, I do have some alternatives. As I am helpful, I would like to offer to the government and to all of the Dorothys on the back bench some of these alternatives. Alternative option 1: get out of the way and let a Labor government fund our schools properly. Alternative option 2: locate a dictionary and look up the meaning of 'fair'. Alternative option 3: do not give big businesses a $65 billion tax handout on the backs of the children that the Prime Minister says he cares a lot about but rarely acts on.

I already have 99 problems in my electorate with fairness. We suck up a lot when it comes to the government and their disgusting choices, but now they are attacking schoolchildren to save $22 billion out of the budget by cutting education funding. Yet, millionaires are getting a tax cut. The Prime Minister cares less about the children of this country and more about his big business mates.

See this speech in context