Deborah O'Neill (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

What we just heard there from Senator Seselja was a dismissal of parents who have travelled across the country to be here today with their children who have a disability. Essentially, they have been called liars in that contribution from Senator Seselja.

That is what is happening in every single portfolio area that the government touches. They say one thing, they deliver the other and then they try to convince you that black is blue. People are onto them, though. The joke is up, because it is not a very funny joke. When you absolutely reject the reality of people's lived experiences, when you reject the parents of children with disabilities and when you reject the children with disabilities who are here to tell their stories and have the truth told, you are sinking to a new low.

Before the election, Tony Abbott said he was on a unity ticket with Labor on school funding. That was an absolute misrepresentation of the truth. Mr Pyne said:

… you can vote Liberal or Labor and you'll get exactly the same amount of funding for your school ...

Well, that is 'exactly' not true. He did not deliver that. And we can see a $30 billion cut to education over the next 10 years, from this government. This is the same Liberal government that announced in last year's budget it was not going to fund years 5 and 6 of the Gonski reforms. It has taken $30 billion out.

The urgent question today is: what is Tony Abbott going to do about the funding for students with disability and funding for years 5 and 6 of the reforms? The Labor Gonski reforms are all about making sure every student and every school gets the support they need to achieve their best. Australians already understand: Gonski is the fair path. This government pretended it was onside with Gonski and then rejected Gonski the minute it got into office. A central plank of the Gonski model is a national needs-based loading for students with disability so every student gets the education that they deserve.

What Labor is here fighting for today and every day is fairness for every Australian—not just some Australians. Before the election the Abbott government promised to deliver on that unity ticket, especially in the area of disability funding. From 2015, they said, there would be more funding for people with disability through the disability loading in 2015. It is 2015; they have not delivered. Yet they stand in this chamber and pretend that they are honouring those promises. Day after day, misrepresentation after misrepresentation—I am not allowed to use the 'l' word—this government have betrayed students with disability. They have betrayed parents; they have betrayed the truth. Too many students with disabilities are missing out on things that other students take for granted. We have heard from parents that sometimes their kids cannot attend school all day; they can only go part time because that is as much as the school can provide; they are so resource poor.

I want to point to the report brought to the parliament today, called 'State of our schools' by the AEU. In that they talk about the resources that are lacking—assistance for teachers in classrooms, specialist support, funding to pay for the professional development of teachers, dedicated programs, appropriate learning spaces, insufficient teachers, inadequate equipment. These are basic things that people should expect to find in schools, especially if they have a child with a disability. When children are born in Australia—the kind of Australia I believe in—they have the right to an education, whether they have a disability or not. We need to be responding to that, and this government is not doing it.

The really disgraceful thing that I want to put on the record is that, when Labor came in, we tried to get a national definition of disability and so we undertook research. That research went out into the disability sector. In contrast, since this government came in, they have failed to put very important reports on the public record. On 5 March, when I tried to table a report by PricewaterhouseCoopers on additional resourcing provided for students with disability, the Liberal members of that committee used their numbers to prevent me from making this document public. This government is a disgrace; they are keeping vital information from the sector, from parents and teachers. They cut them out of the conversation and assume that they have a right to rule from on high and, when they had the chance to be transparent, they walked away from the opportunity that Labor provided them to do the right thing. Instead, they shut down debate. They have not delivered funding in 2015; they have not committed to year 5 and year 6 of the Gonski funding. This government cannot be trusted in any policy area. (Time expired)