Jane Prentice (Ryan, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Education. Will the minister please inform the House how the government is delivering fair funding for students in Queensland like those at Mitchelton State High School in my electorate of Ryan? Minister, how does this compare to other approaches?

Joel Fitzgibbon (Hunter, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Agriculture) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Madam Speaker, I rise on a point of order, under 101. It is clear that the last part of that question is exactly the sort of phrase which Speaker Jenkins took offence to in the 43rd parliament. You will see his references on page 555 of House of Representatives Practice in that it invites the minister to comment on opposition policies.

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There is no point of order. I call the Minister of Education.

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Minister for Education) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am very pleased to be able to inform the member for Ryan that, following the press conference that the Prime Minister and I have done today, Queensland will gain $794 million in extra funding for their school students over the next four years. Queensland is one of the three winners from the coalition extending our commitment beyond matching Labor's level of funding before the election. You would remember that Labor took $1.2 billion from the school funding model in the pre-election fiscal outlook. They ripped it away from Queensland, the Northern Territory and Western Australia. I am very pleased to be able to say today that Queensland will gain almost $800 million for their school students because this government are not only keeping their commitment to match Labor's funding but are going beyond that commitment with $1.2 billion of new money. We were left a complete mess—

Mr Dreyfus interjecting—

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Isaacs is warned!

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Minister for Education) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

by the previous government. The previous minister for education, in the short tenure the Leader of the Opposition had in that role, ripped $1.2 billion out of school funding and he left a national model that did not include three of the most important jurisdictions in Australia. So there was no national model. He took $1.2 billion from the model. We on the other hand will keep all of our commitments. We are putting $1.6 billion in that Labor promised; we are putting in an extra $1.2 billion that Labor took; we are delivering a national model that includes every jurisdiction; and we will dismantle in the Australian Education Act the red tape and the regulations that Labor built in that made the model almost unintelligible and incapable of being delivered. We will not have a federal inspectorate, we will not have a school performance institute and we will not have all the levels of ministerial intervention from Canberra in our state and territory schools, so that we can say with absolute confidence that, following this commitment, no school can be worse off because of anything that the Commonwealth does.

Kate Ellis (Adelaide, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Education) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. I refer to the coalition's election promise made on 29 August: 'You can vote Liberal or Labor and you will get exactly the same amount of funding for your school.' What guarantee can the Prime Minister give that under his plan no school will be worse off as a result of actions by the Commonwealth or state government cuts?

Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We are actually doing better, because the money that the Leader of the Opposition ripped out we are fully putting back, so we are more than keeping our commitments. We will always keep our commitments. In this case, we are doing better than simply keeping our commitments.

Steve Irons (Swan, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Education. Will the minister inform the House how the government is delivering fair funding for students in Western Australia like those of Lathlain Primary School in my electorate of Swan? How does this compare to other approaches?

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Minister for Education) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am delighted to get another question from my own side with respect to the government's announcement today, and I am shocked, surprised, that the opposition has not been able to summon up the courage to ask me a question about school funding. Ataturk said that when the battle changes a good general changes their battle tactics. Unfortunately, the Leader of the Opposition is still using last week's questions pack and asking the same questions he would have asked before the government's announcement before question time, but I guess that will change with experience in opposition.

I have good news for the member for Swan. In fact, Western Australia will gain remarkably from the announcement that we made before question time. Over the next four years they will gain $120 million more in extra funding that was ripped away by the former minister for education, the Leader of the Opposition, before the election. In the pre-election fiscal outlook, the former minister for education, now the Leader of the Opposition, took $120 million from Western Australia—punished them for the good outcomes that they are achieving—because Labor do not like the independent public schools model in Western Australia. They ripped that money away and the coalition today announced that we are putting that money back. We want the debate to move from this debate about school funding to something that really matters in education beyond school funding, and that is quality and standards—teacher quality, parental engagement, a robust curriculum and more local decision making—

Ms King interjecting—

And, yes, phonics. The member for Ballarat raises phonics. Yes—the coalition is deeply committed to orthodox teaching methods and phonics, because we want students to leave school being able to read and write. The member for Perth, very respectfully, has written on this subject and said exactly what I am saying today—that things like phonics are exactly the way to improve the literacy and numeracy of our students. She said it. She said modern fads are teaching our students to hate school, and I agree with the member for Perth about that and I am glad to have her on our team.

Western Australia will win from the decisions that we have made today. We are putting back the money that Labor ripped from schools in Queensland, Western Australia and the Northern Territory, and the Western Australians will be able to get on with that excellent work they are doing in giving more autonomy and local decision-making to independent public schools, which is transforming public schooling, not just in the schools but in the communities in which those schools reside.

Kate Ellis (Adelaide, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Education) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Before the election, the minister told Australian schools, 'You will get the funding but you will not get the strings attached.' Can the Prime Minister confirm whether the requirement that states do not cut school funding is considered to be a string?

Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The minister's statement prior to the election was absolutely accurate and entirely reflects the position of the government.

Natasha Griggs (Solomon, Country Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Education. Will the minister inform the House how the government is delivering fair funding for students in the Northern Territory, such as those in Alawa Primary School in my electorate? How does this compare to other approaches?

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Minister for Education) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am delighted to get another question, this time from the Northern Territory, about the government's education announcements today.

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Lingiari will desist!

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Minister for Education) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am very surprised that the Labor Party has chosen to ignore the Minister for Education on such an important day for schools. I can tell the member for Solomon that the Northern Territory will gain $272 million from today's announcement.

Opposition members interjecting—

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Parramatta is warned!

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Minister for Education) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

That is $272 million that will, from 2014, flow to Northern Territory schools—schools that have their own particular challenges in supporting those students that the Giles government—

Opposition members interjecting—

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Lingiari is warned!

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Minister for Education) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

is trying to help. It is $272 million for the Northern Territory that the former Minister for Education, now the Leader of the Opposition, ripped away in the pre-election fiscal outlook. This government is not only keeping the commitments it made before the election to have the same funding level as Labor of $1.6 billion; we have gone further. We are putting an extra $1.2 billion into school education. I can understand the embarrassment of the Labor Party—because they think education is their issue. It must really stick in their craw that it is the coalition government that is spending more money in school education over the next four years than Labor would have had they been re-elected. If Labor had been re-elected, schools would be $1.2 billion short on the funding they expected over the next four years. If Labor had been re-elected, there would be no national school funding agreement. But I have delivered a national school funding agreement. I have delivered what the Leader of the Opposition was incapable of doing. I have delivered an agreement that includes every jurisdiction—state and territory, Catholic and independent—

Opposition members interjecting—

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Rankin is also warned!

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Minister for Education) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

and I have delivered it with $1.2 billion more money, which means we can move on to debates about teacher quality, about curriculum, about engaging parents and about more local decision making. It is no surprise that the Premier of New South Wales said today:

This measure alone—

our announcement of $1.2 billion—

means schools students are in a better position now than they were before the election.

He said—and it is worth repeating:

Mr Abbott should be commended for restoring the $1.2 billion of education funding which was deceitfully removed by the Labor government in its dying days.

Deceitfully removed by whom?—by the former Minister for Education, the now Leader of the Opposition, who has remained very silent about his $1.2 billion cut. Unfortunately for him, it is now writ large for all to see.