Senate debates
Tuesday, 24 March 2015
Questions without Notice: Take Note of Answers
Budget, Education Funding
3:17 pm
Matthew Canavan (Queensland, Liberal National Party) Share this | Hansard source
And you on that side do not want to contribute and do not want to cooperate on something that we all agree must happen. You just want to play politics. You want to play politics with people's lives and disabled children's lives, and I find that disgraceful. I find it absolutely disgraceful, because this year we are providing $1.2 billion more, and that is funding more services. I am sure more can be done, but when I hear the arguments from the other side I am reminded of my kids.
My kids are just like the Labor Party—they want everything. They want to eat lollies for afternoon tea; they want to play computer games all night. When I go home, I am going to build a new computer with my son, and he will want to play computer games all weekend. I am going to have a monumental battle with him when I tell him: 'No, you can only play four hours at a time. You have to do your homework and other things as well.' That is what responsible people do. They say: 'Yes, you can have fun every now and again. Yes, you can have a few sweets every now and again, but you also have to worry about your weight. You also have to study for your future and put away for a rainy day.'
But the Labor Party does not think like that; they act like kids in this place. They want to have everything. They want to have more money to spend on services for disabled children—a noble cause—but we do not have an unlimited amount of money. They want to spend more money on the NDIS. We heard Senator Singh say they want more money for foreign aid. How are they going to fund all of this? The reason we have had to make some tough decisions—
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