Deborah O'Neill (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the minister for answering some questions that he crafted—in a pretty crafty way, actually—out of the questions that I asked. He constructed them in a way that provided him with an opportunity to read from a sheet and stick to the scripts that the government has been trotting out disingenuously for weeks. I was here when you gave an answer to Senator Collins about the funding for the board, and you gave some state-by-state information in an extremely speedy way—a set of numbers that you have not had the courtesy to table, that cannot be checked anywhere, that have just floated on the air into the Senate and that you are asking us to just take on trust. Let me tell you, Minister: it is a pretty hard thing to take your word at this point in time when there are so many key people in education—experts around the country—who are saying that you are misrepresenting their views, that you have not listened to them, that you are ignoring their advice and that you are not answering any questions. So pardon me if I have trouble believing the answers that you have crafted to your own questions, let alone your avoidance of the details of the ones that I have asked you to give me a response to.

I would like to think that I heard it all, but you actually spoke fairly quickly, Minister, so pardon me if I go back and say that, in the middle of whatever patter we got then, I did not understand what the proposed transitional funding arrangements are. Did you tell me if individual schools or systems apply for that? What special funds are available to what sectors with regard to these transitional funding arrangements?