Julie Owens (Parramatta, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Small Business) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Education. I refer to Merrylands High School in my electorate, where 70 per cent of students speak a language other than English at home. Given that the Minister for Education has confirmed that his deals are 'no strings attached', will the minister guarantee that individual students at Merrylands High School will receive the Gonski loading for students with limited English?

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

I am grateful to get this question from the member for Parramatta. The government announced on Monday that we would put an extra $1.2 billion into schools in the Northern Territory, Queensland and Western Australia to pay for the loadings—

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

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

The minister is answering the question as it has been asked. Perhaps if you listen you might get some information.

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

We announced on Monday that we would put an extra $1.2 billion into Western Australia, the Northern Territory and Queensland, which will pay for base funding and loadings in those states over the next four years. That is the formula for the model and so, axiomatically, that means that loadings and the base funding will be contributed to by the Commonwealth. That also means that, from 2014 onwards, New South Wales, Tasmania, South Australia, Victoria and the ACT will all have their funding entirely secured. This means that loadings and base funding will also be paid for, contributed to by the Commonwealth in those states and territories. What the government can guarantee is that we are putting $1.2 billion more into the school funding model to ensure that the full amount of money flows to the states—

Julie Owens (Parramatta, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Small Business) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I raise a point of order on relevance, Madam Speaker. The question was whether the funding would reach the students, not—

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

No, repeating the question does not constitute a point of order. The point of order has to show where the relevance is required. There is no point of order.

Opposition members interjecting—

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

One of the members opposite just said, 'Has he even mentioned loadings?' I think if they check the Hansard record they will find I have mentioned it several times already in this answer. If the member for Parramatta knew anything about how the model worked, she would have been too embarrassed to move her point of order, because, of course, the Commonwealth pays the money to the states and territories. The states and territories distribute it to the students and to the schools. This was the model under Labor, under the Howard government, under the Rudd-Gillard government—which apparently never happened—and it is the model under the Abbott government. It is called block funding to states and territories and to the Catholics. The only schools that are directly funded by the Commonwealth are independent schools, and even that money flows through the states first and then to the independent schools. The whole problem with the opposition's position on this is that they do not understand the model. They do not understand the education system. It is very complicated, I grant you, but when the member for Parramatta is given a question by the Manager of Opposition Business in the House she should check it herself. Because by the very fact of putting $1.2 billion in that the Leader of the Opposition ripped out, we are securing the funding for all other states and territories. If Labor had been re-elected, there would have been no conditions, loadings or base funding support for Western Australia, Queensland and the Northern Territory, because Labor was giving them a great big fat zero.

Opposition members interjecting—

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

The member for Adelaide will desist!

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

They were giving them nothing at all. The public will dismiss all the cant and hypocrisy you hear from the other side of the House, because they know that one side is giving $1.2 billion, while the other side was giving a great big fat zero to three important jurisdictions in Australia.