Fiona Nash (NSW, National Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Regional Education) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Senator Mason. We have got a federal government with a debt of $241 billion and a record in waste that is second to none. Perhaps if they had not wasted so much money, Senator Mason, they might be able to free up a little bit of money to put to something like education reforms. We have seen the Home Insulation Program with the pink batts with $2.5 billion mismanaged. We have seen greens loans and Green Start, with the $175 million Green Loans Program mismanaged and eventually dumped. There was the Solar Homes Program with a $850 million blow-out. The list goes on and on and on. So it is no wonder there is no money being talked about. It is no wonder the government is not saying, 'By the way here we have got the money to do this. It's no problem at all with.' We have no idea who is going to pay for it. What is it going to do to the Treasurer's $1.5 billion wafer-thin surplus? How is it going to impact on the surplus? Schools have absolutely no certainty—none—and it is about time this government got its act together and started giving this country some decent policy. We saw the Prime Minister say this yesterday, telling the Independent Schools National Forum:

Every independent school in Australia will see their funding increase under our plan.

Thank you very much but I am not going to believe anything this Prime Minister has to say anymore. I would be far more likely to believe in fairies at the bottom of the garden and I would probably have more respect for fairies at the bottom of the garden. Senator Mason, you would well know that the PM's track record on promises is not actually that crash hot, so why should we believe the Prime Minister when she says:

Every independent school in Australia will see their funding increase under our plan.

This is a Prime Minister who said she had no plans to challenge Kevin Rudd, none at all. In May 2010 the Prime Minister was quipping to the media:

There's more chance of me becoming the full-forward for the Dogs than there is of any change in the Labor Party …

Well, that is history for you, isn't it? Then of course there was the one that everybody knows and understands very well:

There will be no carbon tax under the government I lead.

What do we have now? We have a carbon tax. So tell me, Senator Mason, what do you think? Do you think there is any chance of there being truth in this statement:

Every independent school in Australia will see their funding increase under our plan.