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

Thank you, Senator McKenzie, for your best wishes. All we can see from those opposite in terms of alternative policy is that they want to keep 27 different special deals. They want to maintain the disparity where one state is treated differently to another state. They want to maintain the disparity where one non-government schooling sector is treated separately to another non-government schooling sector. They are committed to special deals on the other side because, I guess, it is in their DNA from their union background, going around and doing the types of sneaky special deals that Mr Shorten used to do when it came to penalty rates when he was back in the union movement. For them it is all about special deals. For us it is about, as the Grattan Institute has said, good policy in the broad public interest. That is what our school funding reforms deliver: good policy in the broad public interest that puts Australian schools and their needs first and foremost.