Jacinta Collins (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Cabinet Secretary) Share this | Hansard source

I have said to Senator Back that I will explain how the concern is not so much what Simon says but what Simon does not say. You might recall—I am not really being glib here—that it was the state ministers who came out of their last ministerial council saying it was 'all Simon says'. In other words, the outcome of any Commonwealth-state partnership in this area has deteriorated so badly that he would front one ministerial council with just two case studies. That is the only prior consideration or airing of this sole Commonwealth funding approach, and the only other area we have been directed to as informing this shift has been the cabinet consideration. He could not even draw the Grattan Institute into an informed discussion about why we should move to 80-20. There has been no informed discussion about moving to 80-20. As I said, that is the issue about public schools that I have been accused of not being concerned about, so let's leave that on the table.

Senator Back, on the issues that you are concerned about: it is what Simon does not say which highlights—