David Leyonhjelm (NSW, Liberal Democratic Party) Share this | Hansard source

Yes, I accept your point. I suppose I am using shorthand for the Turnbull government and the Abbott government. That was not intended to be disrespectful to people in the other place.

The Parliamentary Budget Office has confirmed to me that passing Mr Turnbull's bill would reduce Commonwealth government funding over the coming decade by $1.2 billion, compared to what the current law requires. Despite the government's claim that it was increasing school funding, this was compared to the unlegislated fantasy of the Abbott government. I knew that the government's bill was actually cutting school funding over the coming decade, compared to what the current law requires. That was fine by me. The government was also proposing to make small improvements in how funding is distributed, although, in a perfect world, the Commonwealth would provide no school funding, the states would fund students rather than schools and funding would be properly means tested, such that we could jettison the grab bag of duplicative, poorly designed loadings and capacity to contribute calculations of the current system.

But yesterday the government changed. It proposed a further $4.9 billion in Commonwealth school funding over the coming decade and has prepared amendments to its own bill to make this funding boost the law of the land. So now the government is planning to increase Commonwealth school funding over the coming decade by $23.5 billion compared to Mr Abbott's approach. Crucially, this also means that Commonwealth school funding, compared to the current law of the land, is set to increase by $3.7 billion.

Within a day the government's approach to schools has morphed from a spending cut to a spending splurge. This is despite the evidence that school funding does not determine school performance, despite the evidence that fiscal responsibility is required early in a parliamentary term, despite the evidence that adopting Labor-Greens policies does not make Labor-Greens voters vote Liberal and despite the evidence that a government's incessant borrowing eventually causes mass hardship for the people. The irony is that the consequences of this will fall on current school students.

In order to pay current school teachers more, regardless of their performance, the government is burdening today's children with ever greater debt. Might I remind senators that the government's net debt is $355 billion, and might I remind them that each year the government is adding to this debt by running budget deficits. We are spending money we do not have. We are falling into the very spiral of borrowing and debt that Senator Gichuhi so clearly warned against in her maiden speech. How can you, in good conscience, agree to borrow even more money under the school funding deal? When confronted with a Senate that has a dangerous addiction to borrowing and spending, the government should have been prepared to see its bill defeated, but its focus is on the political theatre of a winning vote, regardless of what that vote entails. It is principle-free governing, and it is ruinous for our nation.