Sam Dastyari (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

He said at the time—and I am quoting a press conference on 29 August 2013:

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

That turned out to be a statement that was not true. That turned out to be a statement that is untrue.

We also had the then Leader of the Opposition, who became the Prime Minister and who is now a quiet and subservient backbencher—a Mr Tony Abbott—talk about an absolute 'unity ticket' when it came to school funding. Then, as if that were not enough, the official Liberal Party-endorsed sign at the election on 7 September 2013—properly authorised by the Liberal Party—said:

Liberals will match Labor's school funding dollar for dollar.

After the election was over we saw these promises broken. We saw teachers betrayed; we saw students, parents and principals in every state and territory ripped off.

Over Christmas, when there was a presumption that nobody was watching, the Prime Minister, Mr Malcolm Turnbull, made the decision to dump the Gonski reforms and cut $30 billion in future potential funding from our schools. To break this down: on average, that is $3.2 million from every school, which will mean fewer subject choices, less support for students with disability, fewer literacy and numeracy programs, learning support cuts and less training for teachers.

Fundamentally this all comes down to the priorities of a government and what a government should, wants to and chooses to prioritise. We have seen from the answers from the minister today and in the decisions that have been made by this government that they have decided that the future education of our children is not a priority. For this to all happen just as children go back to school is a tragedy.