Mark Butler (Port Adelaide, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Environment, Climate Change and Water) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. As a result of the $30 billion of cuts to schools locked in by this year's budget, the Catholic Education Commission has said:

…fees will increase, schools could close and the quality of education will be compromised.

Given the Prime Minister's $30 billion in cuts are just the start of his plan to cut all Australian government funding to schools, what extra damage will his secret and extreme plan do to Catholic schools?

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

I call the Hon. Minister for Education.

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I do admire the audacity of the member for Port Adelaide and the acting shadow minister, who has now become known as 'Mr President'—

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

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

Silence on my left! The member for Wakefield is warned.

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

in asking a question about school funding. It is Labor's way to keep trying to pretend that somehow they are going to provide rivers of gold to public and non-government schools beyond the forward estimates. Both he and the shadow Treasurer and the Leader of the Opposition are being asked time and time again over the last 12 months—

Opposition members interjecting—

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

The member for Hotham is warned.

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

whether they are committed to the apparent river of gold beyond the forward estimates, and none of them has ever committed to it. They have not committed to it because they do not have the money. They are trying to sell a pup to parents and the ATU; they have not been able to fess up to the fact that, actually, the government has got it right. We are increasing school funding—by eight per cent, eight per cent the year after that, six per cent the year after that and four per cent the year after that. We are focusing on the things that matter in schools—whether it is the national curriculum or teacher training or parental engagement or school autonomy. We are focusing on getting outcomes for students, having resolved the school funding debate.

I particularly admire the audacity of the Labor Party asking about school funding, when it was the Abbott government that put $1.2 billion back into school funding, which the Leader of the Opposition had removed in the pre-election fiscal outlook. They thought they would get away with removing $1.2 billion from school funding. Imagine my surprise, Madam Speaker, when I became the Minister for Education and discovered that we had $1.2 billion less to spend on school funding because of the Leader of the Opposition. I set about convincing the Treasurer and the Prime Minister—which was not hard—that getting the funding right as a foundation for our schools policy was the right approach and so we did. We put $1.2 billion—we fixed it—back into school funding. We have Western Australia, Queensland and the Northern Territory back into the national school funding model—something Labor had failed to do. Also in the dying minutes of this answer I wish to draw a contrast between the maturity of the South Australian Labor Premier today in comparison to the Labor opposition here in Canberra: Jay Weatherill, as Premier of South Australia, in a rare moment of perspicacity, has made the obvious point that this is only a discussion paper that has been released today in the newspapers. It is a discussion paper; it canvasses many options. But the Commonwealth government is not responsible for schools in Australia; that is the responsibility of the states and territories—and well may it be so—and we will continue to support them in their good works.