Joanne Ryan (Lalor, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to condemn this government's crazy $22 billion cut to schools across this country. In my electorate of Lalor it is a $24½ million cut from the state schools across the electorate in the next two years. I call this policy out. It is not sector blind; it is not needs based. All it serves to do is highlight the uncertainty and, particularly cruelly, highlight the uncertainty for the special schools in my area that are facing dramatic cuts. I want to give a shout out to all of the teachers who have been working tirelessly under a needs based funding model who will now have the rug pulled out from underneath them by this government.

I finish by calling for the member for Melbourne to visit his state schools and hear directly from them what this government's policies are going to do in state schools across this country. Those opposite appear to have been misinformed. They have drunk the cordial. They need to come and sit with us, and they need to visit their schools and find out what is really happening. This is not Gonski 2.0; this is a farce and a con.