David Littleproud (Maranoa, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Will the Prime Minister update the House on how the government is delivering record schools funding that is fair, transparent, needs based and nationally consistent? Is the Prime Minister aware of any threats to this approach?

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

I thank the honourable member for his question, and I can say that—because of the government's commitment to fair, national, consistent, needs based funding for schools across Australia—in the honourable member's electorate of Maranoa, schools will receive an additional $391 million over the next decade. Last night, this House passed the legislation—

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

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

that moves Australia one step closer to finally delivering the fair, transparent and nationally consistent funding model that David Gonski recommended. Honourable members opposite call, 'Shame!' Well, they should be ashamed! They should be ashamed for their hypocrisy, their inconsistency and their dishonesty. For how many years did they preach about Gonski funding? 'Do you give a Gonski?' they said. Well, the answer was: they did not. They corrupted the Gonski funding model, as Ken Boston, Gonski's co-author, described it.

Under our changes, over the next decade, schools will not only be $18.6 billion better off, but they will finally be funded based on need and, within the decade, the federal government will provide 80 per cent of the Schooling Resource Standard for non-government schools and 20 per cent of the Schooling Resource Standard for government schools.

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

Why?

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

I am so glad the honourable member for Sydney has spoken up. Why indeed! Why indeed is the honourable member for Sydney unable to count? She said this morning that thousands of Catholic schools are going to lose out under our model—there are only 1,700 Catholic schools in the whole country! She is drawing one long bow after another, unable to defend any element of her inconsistency. She twisted and turned, tying herself into a tighter and tighter knot, in what must have been one of the more memorable train wreck interviews that the honourable member has engaged in. The first thing you need to know for a school funding model is how many schools there are, just like it is important to know the difference between a continent and a country when you get into foreign policy.

All of these things are fundamental threshold points that I would encourage the honourable member to pursue. We are not pursuing 27 secret deals—there is one consistent, national, needs based funding model. We are not going to be distracted by the opposition's baseless scare campaigns, contradicted by the Catholic education authorities, not the least of which was the Archdiocese of Brisbane, which confirmed to the parents of their students that school funding from the federal government will increase and they thank the federal government for that commitment. (Time expired)