Catryna Bilyk (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Payne, Senator Bernardi and Senator Ruston all said that three states did not receive extra funding. There is a reason they did not receive that extra funding: those states chose to use those students as political pawns, and refused to sign up to it. They refused to sign up to hundreds of millions of dollars of funding, simply to score a cheap political point against the previous Labor government. Let's not forget that. The Liberal Party and the National Party of those states and federally were happy to use those children. I think it is absolutely atrocious that they would risk money for education and use children as political playthings; to put their education and future outcomes at risk for their own selfish ends.

I have to say that the first few weeks of a new government are always really interesting. You can usually tell in those first few weeks a lot about how the government is going to perform. It is quite sad to see that there has been a continuing pattern of quite bad behaviour that has become apparent with the new government—not least of which is that of Minister Pyne, who had to be saved from making even more faux pas than he had already made by the Prime Minister, Mr Abbott, who had to jump in and save him.

The debacle around education in the past few weeks has been atrocious. Minister Pyne has had more positions than my daughter's ballet classes had. It is absolutely atrocious. It is just atrocious that the Prime Minister and the education minister are blaming the people of Australia and blaming the media for what has been going on.

Senator Abetz interjecting—

I did not hear that, Senator Abetz, but I think you should be taking this issue quite seriously for the people in Tasmania. I do not think they would be that impressed with you—possibly; I don't know what you said, and I am not that interested.

I will be challenging you to come with me to some of those schools in Tasmania whose funding you took away and tell those kids why you are putting their future at risk. If you want to have good teacher outcomes, you put money into education.

The Gonski reform was an amazing report. But of course not many people can find out about it, if they have not already read it. It is a bit hard to find. It has gone. It has been expunged. It has been taken away. The website is not there any longer. Let me talk a little bit especially to those students up in the gallery who might be really interested in what their future education could have been like under a Labor government. The Labor government was prepared to ensure that every school in Australia would receive consistent funding per student. They were prepared to have additional loadings that would apply to provide extra resources for disadvantaged students—for example, any student that might have poor English proficiency or students with a disability or students with learning difficulties, Indigenous students or students from disadvantaged backgrounds or students from small regional or remote schools. We had the process. We had the review that had 7,000 submissions to it. They are all gone from the website; you cannot see them anymore. Thirty-nine schools were visited through the Gonski review and 71 education groups were consulted with. All that work has been wiped, just because those opposite do not want to implement anything and give the previous Labor government credit for anything they did.

In case any of the students or the teachers up in the gallery are interested in the Gonski review, there is one place I found that you can still find it. Thanks to the Australian Primary Principals Association website, you can go on and have a look at the Gonski review. I would recommend that all teachers have a look at it, if they have not already. I am presuming that most teachers in Australia have looked at it. But it is also great for the children to know what those opposite intend to do about their education.

I do not think those opposite really understand the importance of education. They do not understand that it is the single most determining factor in improving life outcomes for people. Education funding, therefore, should be based on need, to ensure that all Australians have an equality of opportunity, to give everyone a fair go. If you want to help teachers, you can help teachers by ensuring that that funding is needs based— (Time expired)

Question agreed to.