Tanya Plibersek (Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I seek leave to move the following motion:

That:

That the House:

(1) notes the Prime Minister:

(a) is cutting $22 billion from schools to pay for his $50 billion big business handout, including to the big banks;

(b) is cutting an average of $2.4 million from each school, a cut which is the equivalent of sacking 22,000 teachers;

(c) is attacking public education, with only one in seven government schools reaching a fair level of funding by 2027;

(d) ambushed the Catholic school system with cuts that will increase fees for parents by thousands of dollars each year or force schools to close; and

(e) refuses to acknowledge the unfairness of his schools plan despite criticism from state governments, educators, schools, teachers, parents and even his own MPs; and

(2) censures the Prime Minister for taking money off schoolkids and giving it to bankers and foreign shareholders.

Leave not granted.

I move:

That so much of the standing and sessional orders be suspended as would prevent the Deputy Leader of the Opposition from moving the following motion forthwith:

That the House:

(1) notes the Prime Minister:

(a) is cutting $22 billion from schools to pay for his $50 billion big business handout, including to the big banks;

(b) is cutting an average of $2.4 million from each school, a cut which is the equivalent of sacking 22,000 teachers;

(c) is attacking public education, with only one in seven government schools reaching a fair level of funding by 2027;

(d) ambushed the Catholic school system with cuts that will increase fees for parents by thousands of dollars each year or force schools to close; and

(e) refuses to acknowledge the unfairness of his schools plan despite criticism from state governments, educators, schools, teachers, parents and even his own MPs; and

(2) censures the Prime Minister for taking money off schoolkids and giving it to bankers and foreign shareholders.

Isn't it incredible that tonight, on budget night, we are going to have a Treasurer who stands up here and defends a decision to give a $50 billion tax giveaway to the biggest businesses in this country, including the four biggest banks, at the very same time that he will be cutting funding to Australian schools? What we have is a government who are trying to get away with this fiction that they are somehow increasing schools funding. Hang on a minute—what are they doing? They are doing something not quite as bad as Tony Abbott did in 2014, and for that—

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Sydney will resume her seat. I have made it very clear to members that they need to refer to other members by their correct titles. I have even sat down the Deputy Prime Minister on the subject. The member for Sydney will refer to members by their correct titles.

Tanya Plibersek (Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

You are quite right, Mr Speaker, and I am very sorry. The member for Warringah, when he used to be Prime Minister, cut $30 billion of school funding. Because this government is only cutting $22 billion, we are supposed to tug our forelocks, take our porridge bowls away and say, 'Thank you, I've actually got enough; I don't need any more.'

This is a cut, any way you look at it. The evidence that this is a cut is in the government's own briefing document, which they gave to every single journalist last week when they were trying to sell this dog of a policy, where it says the difference between Labor's policy and this policy is $22.3 billion. That is a $22.3 billion cut, any way you look at it. Those opposite try to say that this is somehow fairer. How can this be fairer when the vast majority of government schools will never reach their fair funding level? Under our proposal, the majority of schools will get there in 2019; Victoria in 2022. Under this new proposal, one in seven schools will be there at the end of the decade and the rest of them will never get there. Not in the foreseeable future do they get to that schooling resource standard—that fair level of funding described by the Gonski needs-based funding report.

And then there are the Catholic schools. If it is so fair, how have the government managed to unite government school advocates against the cut with Catholic school advocates against the cut? We went to a meeting last night. Hundreds of parents, hundreds of teachers—

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The debate is interrupted in accordance with standing order 43. The debate may be resumed at a later hour.