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

We do see that over that five period six of eight states, all except for New South Wales and Tasmania, were states in which funding went backwards. But South Australia well and truly was the worst offender by far, with a cut of 2.1 per cent to their government schools and across the board. Yet the same state is quite happy to go out and attack the federal government, even though we are giving them money on one hand while they are pocketing it with the other. They are happy to spend South Australian taxpayers' money on campaigns attacking us, on campaigns that are bordering on corruption, when you see the state government getting a grant application on one day and approving it on the same day, to run a partisan political campaign in the middle of the federal election campaign. All the while they are deceitfully failing to actually use the extra federal funding we have given for increases in schools instead of pocketing it as budget savings— (Time expired)