George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you for that question, Senator Bilyk. The answer is: it absolutely does not. What the government is planning to do by adopting the principles of the Gonski report, which you abandoned and never implemented, is to increase school funding on a needs basis by $18.6 billion over 10 years, which is an increase—let me say it again: an increase. It is the largest investment, by far, that any Australian government has ever made in Australian schools—ever.

Senator Bilyk, an $18.6 billion increase is not a $22 billion cut. I tried to explain this to you yesterday, but let me have another go. This is Labor Party economics for you: you dream up a pie-in-the-sky number, you do not suggest any way in which that pie-in-the-sky number can be funded, you then subtract an $18.6 billion increase from your pie-in-the-sky number and you come up with a nonsense figure. That is not a cut, Senator Bilyk. An $18.6 billion increase in funding is not a cut.

Not only are we proud to have invested $18.6 billion extra in Australian schools; we are also pleased that we have embraced, for the first time by any Australian government, the equity principle of the Gonski report. Senator Bilyk, just like you do with the NDIS, it is all very well to engage in the rhetoric, but you have to show where the money is coming from to pay for it, and we have done so.