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

There are extraordinary sums of money involved in school education. We estimate that around 213,504 students in 2018 will identify as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander students and therefore will attract a loading, depending on the intensity of the Indigenous population in the schools that they attend. Because of the scale of the number of students and schools, they end up being very significant numbers. But, importantly, there is also clear growth and clear application of needs based principles. As identified before, I gave the figures in relation to the growth rates across Northern Territory government schools that are estimated to shift from $191 million in funding in 2017 up to $261 million by 2027, as well as highlighting in particular the additional funding and budget resourcing that the government is committed to, in essence, outside of the model to provide some $35.6 million in the Northern Territory. This specifically recognises the unique circumstances there, including the uniquely high starting share of the schooling resource standard.