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

I would like to speak at some length on this particular matter before the chamber, but I am conscious of the timetable here and of a lot of legislation to go through, so I am going to confine my comments to no more than three minutes. I might say that will be quite difficult after listening to 15 minutes of a foul-mouthed diatribe by the minister which did not in anyway contribute to the debate. Having to sit—because it is their program—through that 15 minutes of foul-mouthed accusations makes it very difficult for me to confine my comments to no more than three minutes. The hypocrisy that comes from the Labor Party in relation to this and other matters is just breathtaking.

I wanted to rise to thank the Minister for Education—because it would not have been Senator Carr, who spent over an hour and a half arguing against this in this chamber—for agreeing to the amendment that the crossbenchers and the coalition insisted upon. It will facilitate funding for those schools—and they are mainly in North Queensland—which deal with Indigenous boarders, Indigenous children who come in from very remote areas to the more settled areas to go to boarding school. This amendment is very important to their future education. As I said, the minister in this chamber did not understand and spent over an hour and a half arguing against it the other night. But I am delighted that the Minister for Education took over and agreed with those amendments. In this brief time that I have allowed myself I want to again thank the crossbenchers for their support and thank the minister and all of the members of the lower house for agreeing to that particular amendment, because it means so much for Indigenous children and schools—mainly those in North Queensland.

Before sitting down, I want to again highlight that during the debate the other night the minister gave an assurance that none of those schools that I mentioned, and others that I could not name, would receive less money—indexed—in the future than they are receiving in this current year. I have made known to all those schools that the minister has given that assurance. So we will look with interest to next year to make sure that the assurances given by the minister in this chamber are in fact honoured.