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

I thank Senator Lambie for her question. What I certainly guarantee, Senator Lambie, is that funding has grown over the last couple of years at record levels into schools right around Australia, including government schools in Tasmania, and that funding will continue to grow at record levels this year into schools in Tasmania and next year into schools in Tasmania. Beyond that, Senator Lambie, I give you—through you, Mr President—the assurances that funding will keep growing year on year on year thereafter, that there is a guarantee from this government that we will maintain and grow funding for schools right around Australia and that that funding will ensure that schools who are currently doing more as a result of the additional funding they have received will be able to keep doing the things they are currently doing. Schools who are planning to do more next year as a result of additional funding they receive will be able to keep doing those things, because funding will keep up with costs, it will keep up with enrolments and it will ensure that there is money there for our schools into the future.

As I have said in this place before and in many other places, money is important in schools, but how you use it matters even more. That is why the government are committed to ensuring that we deliver on teacher quality reforms, that future teachers who have gone through our universities for primary schools have specialisations in maths, science, literacy and languages, and that those teachers actually meet minimum standards in terms of their own literacy and numeracy capabilities.