Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Education and Training) Share this | Hansard source

Senator O'Neill and those opposite can get worked up about it if they like, but they may be wise to heed the words of the South Australian Premier, Jay Weatherill, who said:

… "it's only a discussion paper".

  …   …   …

"We've been asking them to canvas the broader range of options," …

"There's a broad debate going on about Commonwealth/state relations, which is a good thing."

South Australian Labor Premier Jay Weatherill says it is a good thing that the whole suite of options is being canvassed. That is not to say that any of those options is necessarily our policy, Premier Weatherill's policy or any other government's policy. The debate underway is a full consideration of how the Federation could be addressed and could be reformed to ensure we have a more effective delivery of education services and of school services in the future because we are seeing Australia's performance going backwards. Despite record levels of funding going in, performance is slipping backwards. That is not good enough, and we have to address why that performance is going backwards. (Time expired)