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

Our plans for school children right around Australia—and in Tasmania in particular, for Senator Lambie—are to continue to grow school funding and to ensure that school funding is delivered on the basis of need. Our plans are that, where there are communities of higher socioeconomic disadvantage, schools receive a loading to support those students; that, where there are students with a disability, those schools get a loading to support the educational assistance and adjustment required for those students with disability; and that, where there are students from an Indigenous background, they receive additional assistance.

These are the commitments that the government make. We will make sure the funding is there, that it is budgeted and that it is deliverable, but also that it is affordable. Most importantly, we will work with the states and territories to ensure reform in our schools so that the money is used as effectively as possible on effective national curricula, on teacher quality reforms, on parental engagement, on measures that lift engagement in science, technology, engineering and mathematics— (Time expired)