Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Why is the Prime Minister choosing in tonight's budget to cut $22 billion from schools to pay for tax cuts for millionaires and big business?

Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The government have announced that we are committed to nationally consistent, fair, needs-based funding for all Australian schools. That is what we are doing. You know, Mr Speaker, we have the endorsement of David Gonski. Who gives a Gonski? We are delivering Gonski's model. We are delivering needs-based funding and fair funding right across the board to ensure that all Australian students get a fair chance to get ahead.

Of course, with one of his characteristic backflips, the Leader of the Opposition now wants to denounce it. Yet we have identified in excess of 75 occasions—he was certainly sticking to the script on this occasion—when he has said fundamentally that needs-based funding will give children across Australia the best start in life. He has said that again and again and again. Instead, he did not give a Gonski. He delivered 27 conflicting deals which gave Australian children totally different levels of Commonwealth government support depending on what system they were in, what state they were in and whether they were in independent or systemic schools. It was a complete shemozzle and impossible to understand.

What have we done? We are delivering a uniform, fair, consistent system as recommended by David Gonski six years ago. We are committing an additional $18 billion over 10 years. Most importantly of all, David Gonski will chair a second review, Gonski 2.0, with a view to achieving educational excellence in Australia. We know that whilst the money is important it is critically vital that we ensure that we raise the educational standards we are achieving in our schools. We know there has been more funding going into schools and results have been declining relative to those in comparable countries. That is something we are committed to reverse.

Our quality schools agenda delivers fair, national, consistent, needs-based funding. We will deliver the improvement in standards overseen by David Gonski himself to make sure that all of those dollars count. Unlike the Leader of the Opposition, who betrayed the principles of the Gonski review, who betrayed the school children of Australia, we are standing up for them to ensure that they are treated fairly and that they get the results they deserve and they need to succeed in the 21st century.