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

It is because of a couple of things. The baseline is, of course, what they actually receive in 2017, and it grows each and every year into the future. As I indicated in my first question, the footnotes were very clear in last year's budget papers that, as state allocations for some programs were yet to be determined, relevant payments are not included in state totals. Consequently, total payments may not equal the sum of state totals. They further went on that it includes financial assistance grants for local government in some instances and then noted that state allocations from the 2018 school year onwards are indicative only and final allocations are subject to formal negotiations with Commonwealth, the states and the non-government schools sector. Of course, in those final allocations for 2018 onwards we propose to remove all ambiguity or uncertainty and to actually ensure that they are locked into legislation under a far fairer arrangement than the deal that absolutely dudded Western Australia that the Gillard government put on the table.