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

I listened to every single word you said, Minister. Regrettably, you have no idea what you are talking about, and I am disappointed that your officials cannot get it through your thick skull what the issue is! I did not want to do that, because I am trying to help these people. Minister, if you and your officials are so confident in what you are saying, it is very easy for you to rise and say, ‘Senator Macdonald, I’ll guarantee you that all of the schools you’ve mentioned won’t get less in the next four years, indexed, than they got last year.’ You are arguing that they are okay. I am accepting your argument that they are okay. So you will suffer nothing by getting up and naming the schools or just saying, ‘I’ll guarantee that all of the schools you have mentioned, Senator Macdonald, won’t get less over the next four years.’ Isn’t that reasonable? We are with you. You have convinced me they will not, so get up and say it.

I want you to do that, Minister, because the bill does not support you. I know, having given your word, your officials will bring on an amendment bill early in the new year and we will all be happy. That is what I want to achieve. I do not want to achieve any political points. I just said to Senator Mason: ‘Why am I bothering? Why don’t I sit down and let you stuff it up?’ All the Catholics in Townsville will vote against you and it will be a good political thing for us. I do not want to do that; I want to fix the problem. I know you do not mean them to have difficulties.

You made a passing comment, ‘If St Pats were talking to you, no wonder they did not understand.’ I have not been talking to St Pats; I have been talking to people in the Catholic education system who have given me a list of figures on how much each school will lose if this bill goes through. You do not want that, you do not intend that. That is not what this bill is all about. You want to give them more and I accept that. So why won’t you just guarantee it, and I will guarantee you that we will pass the amending bill when it comes in in February. There is an extra bonus to my invitation to you, Minister. If I can get that assurance I will leave the debate and you can get onto the amendments that you want to.