Marise Payne (NSW, Liberal Party, Minister for Human Services) Share this | Hansard source

It is an absolute disgrace that those opposite—and that senator in particular—would verbal what people have said in relation to this matter and try to score even cheap political points. But nevertheless, what is very, very clear is that the same amount of funding money will go to New South Wales schools and, as I was about to say before, if the senator paid a skerrick of attention to what has already been done in New South Wales he would know that allocations have already been announced. Unless he has some inside information from, apparently, his close friend the New South Wales minister, I do not expect they will be varying their own funding application. Quite frankly, it is a matter for them. The Commonwealth government has made its commitment very clear: the same amount of funding will go to New South Wales as was going to New South Wales before. How that is distributed and whether any changes are made to that, is a matter for the states and territories. The senator knows that and chooses to ignore it.