Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Northern Australia) Share this | Hansard source

I am grateful to the Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research and accept the assurance he gave me previously that none of the schools that I have mentioned will be worse off. I thank the minister for that assurance. The record shows that. I have already issued my press release giving the good news to the schools in Townsville who were desperately concerned about this bill. As I said earlier, I did not know anything about this bill at 10 o’clock this morning. But, at 11 o’clock, they were in touch with me, desperately concerned that they would be worse off. Senator Milne, this is about Indigenous boarding students. As far as I am aware, there are no government schools that take boarding students, Indigenous or otherwise. I am grateful for the minister’s assurance. I think he will need these amendments to be able to action the assurance he has given the Senate. So, for all those reasons, I think it is a very worthwhile move. I am particularly grateful to the crossbenchers for their support for Senator Mason’s motion.