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

What we see opposite is, of course, an attempted game of envy politics—to pick out a school, to distort the figures in relation to that school, and to give no context about the size of the school or about the fact that the per-student funding provided to that school is, no doubt, significantly less per-student funding than is likely to apply to a range of other schools in more disadvantaged circumstances.

The facts, however, speak for themselves. There is funding growth in Tasmania for certain systems in Tasmania, including the Catholic education system. They received faster rates of funding growth than in other parts of the country to catch them up, because of the dud deals that were done in the past. All of this helps to ensure that, ultimately, we have a consistent, needs based application of funding across Australia, including in Tasmania, with more students, more money and funding and support for the students who need it most.