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

Chair, I just provided very clearly for the senator the growth rates in estimated funding for each of the different systems in Tasmania, demonstrating, that contrary to her claims, there are no cuts. There is in fact growth across each of those different parts of the school system in Tasmania. Of course, the senator knows full well that the history in relation to school funding in Australia is that public schools are largely funded by the state government, as is their constitutional responsibility and history; and that non-government schools have historically be largely funded by the Commonwealth government.

A result of the proposals that the Turnbull government is putting in place is that public education, government schools in the state system, will receive a record level of support from the Commonwealth government. We will ensure that 20 per cent of the schooling costs across all of those different systems will be funded by the Commonwealth government. That is an increase from the current estimate of around 17 per cent. You do not have to go back too many years to get down to 13 per cent—in fact just around the time that this government was elected—and not too many years prior to that you will find that it was in single digit territory. So there will be record levels of support for government schools in Tasmania, as there will be record levels of support for government schools across every jurisdiction. It will be calculated according to the same consistent needs based formula across all of those different jurisdictions, ensuring that, regardless of state boundaries, we do not play favourites to one state over another and that we actually have an application of a fair, consistent funding model.