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

That is a little bit of a beginning of an extraction of information. So there are some draft terms out there. That takes me back to what I commenced with in my contribution afternoon: why are we doing this now, in such haste, when this absolutely vital part of understanding what is going to happen going forward is out with the sector in draft form, not agreed, and actually unknown by key participants in the system? Why should we as a Senate, representing the Australian people, give the government permission to push ahead with this when it is so clearly underdone, so clearly ill-prepared, so clearly out of touch with the educational experts? I put on the record and say to those in the chamber here tonight that the reason this is so bad is that parents will do what has to be done to protect their children from the loss of educational opportunity that is embedded in what this government is proposing here tonight.

The minister might be 'clever' enough to get some sort of deal constructed here tonight—and certainly the pressure is going to be coming on from everybody because staying here all night and doing this is a big ask. I am going to stay until it is all done because I am committed to this. But the pressure of that to push this through is really a sign of how desperate this government is to just corral this group of people here tonight and get a big tick on something that is incredibly uncertain and have a massive influence across the country so that they do not have to go out and spend the next six to eight weeks actually talking to the experts and coming up with decent legislation that does not have to be amended on the run. They do not want to have those conversations and they have not shown the capacity to engage in negotiations with either the government sector or the Catholic sector across the country in a way that has bred a culture of trust. Indeed, trust is broken with the education sector across this country to the point where one of the leading administrators of Catholic education, Stephen Elder, has said this is the worst experience in terms of interaction with a government in 50 years, that it has never been this bad.

So we know that there is a draft out there about who is going to apply, but we do not know if it is going to be individual schools or systems. Minister, how will the funds be distributed? On what basis is that going to be determined?