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

My question is to the Prime Minister. According to the National Catholic Education Commission, St Therese's Catholic Primary School in the electorate of Corangamite will have to increase its fees by as much as $2,841, because of the Prime Minister's $4.6 billion cut to Catholic schools. Why is the Prime Minister making parents of Catholic schoolchildren pay more while giving millionaires a tax cut, in just 10 days time?

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

I thank the honourable member for her question. The Labor Party continues to try to persuade Australians that the money they never had is somehow or other being taken away. They know, and we know, that everything they said about schools was an exercise in hypocrisy. They claim to care about the students. They claim to 'give a Gonski'. They said they were going to support needs based funding. Then they did 27 separate, inconsistent deals, treating students dramatically differently from one state to another, from one deal to another. They did that, and then they offered money which they never had. They have mocked the students of Australia. Labor disrespected the teachers of Australia. They mocked them and they disrespected them.

We are standing up for the children. We have one vested interest, and it is the children of Australia. We are not representing education bureaucrats or union officials. We are representing the children and their parents who want them to get ahead, and they need to know that there is a consistent national needs based funding model. That is why it has been endorsed by David Gonski. That is why it has been endorsed by the members of his panel. That is why one educational leader after another is calling on the Senate to support it, because they know it is fair, it is consistent and it delivers the funding where it is needed.

As for the honourable member's question, right across the electorate of Corangamite schools are receiving more funding under our model, every single school. This is what we will be delivering under additional funding from that which was set out in the budget last year. We will be funding, over that period, $18.6 billion of additional funding committed, paid for and funded. And total Commonwealth funding over the 10 years is $242.3 billion, with $81 billion going to the Catholic system and $101 billion to state and territory public schools and $61 billion to independent schools. That is our commitment: the highest level of Commonwealth funding for schools ever, on a funding model that is fair, consistent, national, needs based and transparent. Labor talked about it but never did it. They were all about politics; no principles. They forgot about the children and focused on their own political ends. Our vested interest is the kids. That is our commitment.