Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Finance and Deregulation) Share this | Hansard source

No, 'knuckle draggers' is Senator Carr's trademark. He has a patent on that. I understand that the AGSRC is calculated using the expenditure by state and territory government schools and is updated by the ministerial council. Whilst the main inclusions offer salaries and allowances for teachers and related on-costs, the index also includes other recurrent costs such as the cost of utilities. If you want further information, Senator, I suggest you ask the relevant minister.

In relation to the broader issue of funding, this is the government that has doubled school funding—something that cannot be matched by the opposition, given that their plan is to slash services such as health and education. (Time expired)