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

My question is to the Prime Minister, and I refer to his first answer. Is the Prime Minister aware that the State School Teachers' Union of Western Australia has issued a statement denying they support the government's school funding legislation, saying:

… the legislation in its current form should be opposed in the Federal Parliament.

The Prime Minister has been making up data—

Government Members:

Government members interjecting—

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

Members on my right. I have asked the member for Sydney to resume her seat. The Prime Minister will resume his seat. The Leader of the House is warned. I could not hear the second half of the question. The member for Sydney will repeat the question from the beginning.

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

Thank you, Mr Speaker. My question is to the Prime Minister and it refers to his first answer. Is the Prime Minister aware that the State School Teachers' Union of Western Australia has issued a statement denying that they support the government's school funding legislation, saying:

… the legislation in its current form should be opposed in the Federal Parliament.

The Prime Minister has been caught out making up data. Is he now making up endorsements?

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

The Deputy Leader of the Opposition must be looking at a different reference point to me because I am reading here from a newspaper report today which quotes the State School Teachers' Union of WA President, Pat Byrne, conceding that Western Australian schools would get a better deal under Gonski 2.0 than under the current system, with funding for public schools in the state to increase 6.8 per cent a year over the next decade compared with 4.7 per cent under the status quo.

The issue for the honourable member is her own consistency. She has campaigned for years for needs based funding. She has cited David Gonski for years. She has railed against the coalition and said that we do not accept the Gonski reforms. She said that she 'gave a Gonski' and we did not. Now we have a school funding proposal which is endorsed by David Gonski and the members of his panel, and we have David Gonski's vision of national, transparent and consistent needs based funding endorsed—and that is the difference.

We are delivering on that commitment. Labor has abandoned needs based funding and it is standing in the way of Australian schools getting $18.6 billion of additional funding over the next decade—and getting it in a manner that is fair, getting it in a manner that is transparent, getting it in a manner that is needs based, and then moving on to the next stage of Gonski's work, which is to look at how we can ensure that our students get the best value in terms of quality teaching and educational outcomes out of that funding. That is what we should be focused on.

I recognise the Labor Party wants to play politics with this. I recognise there are many players with many vested interests, but I can say this to the opposition to be very clear: the only vested interest we have are the children of Australia.

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

The member for Sydney is seeking leave to table a document?

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

I am. It is the media statement correcting the report in The West Australian.

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

Leave is not granted. The member for Sydney will resume her seat. Just before I call the Independents for a question, if they have one today—that might work for us both, Member for Kennedy.