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

I will take your interjection in a moment, Senator Bernardi; do not worry about that. Funding matters. Funding schools matters. How you fund also matters. The Gonski proposal that has been put forward allows us to fund our schools properly. That is the proposal that was taken to the last election. That is the proposal that this government had purported to be signed up to, and now it is trying to hide behind this notion.

By the way, their position has changed on this. Two weeks ago, it was, 'Money doesn't matter at all.' Now it is, 'Oh, well, we're going to make the money be spent better.' The best way to spend the money is by following the Gonski model, the proposal that was developed, and you are not going to be able to achieve that without putting the money there. You are not going to be able to achieve that without actually having that funding available. What the government have now done is cut $30 billion of future funding from our schools, and the consequences of that will be devastating.

I see Senator Bernardi there shaking his head. Senator Bernardi has issues about funding schools. I appreciate that, and I understand that. It must have been a tough week for Senator Bernardi in Adelaide. There was the A-League final. His city was overrun by a bunch of halal-eating, drum-beating, Sydney-loving football fans.