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

I will just go back to the minister’s assurance to me. I am told that Abergowrie College will be $250,000 worse off. I am told that Columba college will be $100,000 worse off. I am told that the Good Shepherd Catholic College, at Mount Isa, will be between $30,000 and $40,000 worse off. I am told that St Pat’s at Townsville will be down by over $100,000 in any year. I do not have figures on the others, but I mention Shalom College, which would be in that line. I mention Mount St Bernard’s. I mention the Lutheran boarding schools in Cairns and the independent boarding schools. Minister, you are assuring me—and I will leave this on your assurance—that all of those schools will not be worse off under this system.

I just mention that, to my knowledge, in Queensland—and Queensland is the biggest state for Indigenous children who board—all of the schools that take boarding students are non-government. I am not aware of any government school that has boarders. The reason the children come from remote and very remote areas—and Senator Carr thinks this is funny—is that it is very difficult for young people to get an education in very remote parts of Queensland. That is why they come in to these schools around Townsville, Cairns, Charters Towers and Mount Isa. I repeat that there will be an amendment that my colleague will move, which I hope will achieve support, which will give the government power to make regulations, which they do not have in relation to this aspect.

I leave this debate now on the basis that Senator Carr has assured me that Abergowrie College will not lose $250,000—in fact, it will not lose anything; that Columba college will not lose $100,000—in fact, it will not lose anything; that the Good Shepherd school at Mount Isa will not lose between $30,000 and $40,000; and that all of those other schools that I have mentioned will not lose money over the next four years under this bill. The minister has not been able, nor have his officials been able, to show me where in the bill there is provision for that. His officials at least should understand—I do not expect Senator Carr to—that the provisions of the bill do not provide for that. They should well know that. I leave the debate on the basis of Senator Carr’s assurance as a minister of the Crown that none of those schools will be receiving less under this bill than they have received in the current financial year.