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

In the last term of the Labor government, Labor started to implement the most comprehensive reform to school funding in decades. Gonski, as it was known, increased funding to schools based on needs of the children and was embraced by parents, teachers and schools, both public and private. Perhaps that is why on the eve of the election Tony Abbott, after arguing against it from months, pledged to match Labor's policy. But we all remember that the policy was cruelly broken within weeks and the government ripped $30 billion out of our schools. In context, that is about $231 million for Parramatta schools—over a decade—ripped out by the Abbott government. You might be forgiven for not knowing that between Christmas and New Year new Prime Minister Turnbull whispered that he was recommitting to these cuts. Some 2½ years after they were made, he recommitted to those $30 billion cuts.

I would like to make Labor's position on these cuts really clear. We will reverse these cuts and deliver the Gonski agreement in full and on time. We will restore the funding that the Abbott-Turnbull government has cut and guarantee funding certainty for our schools, both public and private, so that they can deliver the outcomes children need. We will fund our children based on need and, unlike this government that gave money to states without strings attached, we will make sure the money reaches our schools for the benefit of our children. The difference between the two parties is clear. You can trust Labor on education.