Mark Arbib (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Government Service Delivery) Share this | Hansard source

I certainly do not accept that and the government does not accept that. It is a complete misrepresentation of what happened in Senate estimates. But we do now know what the coalition’s plan is for the stimulus and for education, because Mr Pyne let the cat out of the bag when he said about the money being spent on schools:

We'll come to some arrangement with you about whether you keep half of that or all of that or give some back to the Coalition …

We know what they are going to do now: they want to stop the stimulus, stop the school projects and take the money for their other election commitments, robbing schools across the country. Senator Mason wants to rob Queensland schools of vital infrastructure, vital funding. That is the coalition’s plan for schools. Twelve years of robbing them, cutting education funding, putting in place flagpoles and that is their plan if they get back into government—shame on them. (Time expired)