Barnaby Joyce (New England, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I'd like to rise to endorse the actions of the government in making sure that we look after people in regional areas. The first thing I would like to say, if I may, is there's nothing more annoying than the misleading statement that total government funding between state and federal governments is more to independent schools than it is to state schools. It's not. Total government funding between state and federal level is vastly more weighted towards state schools. They are called state schools—unsurprisingly—because they are financed by the state. And, if we didn't have federal government funding for independent schools and other schools, Catholic schools, then about 30 per cent of the student body throughout Australia would have nowhere to go. And, of course, if you think about it logically, if these people were to go to state schools and require the finance and the resources of the state, then the overall call on access to funds per student would be less. Let us always be honest because, every time you're dishonest and start making this assumption that federal government funding to state schools is less than independent schools, you should always put in the addition: but of course states finance state schools. That's why they're called state schools, not federal schools.

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