Sarah Hanson-Young (SA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

The Australian Greens cannot support this amendment. We have said all the way through this process that if we are to put in place a genuine needs based funding model, a fair system, and one that looks after our most needy students and schools, we must ensure that we are looking after our public schools first and foremost.

We know that it is our public school sector that is primarily below the SRS level. We also know that the majority of Australian kids go to public schools. I have been just amazed at how much attention and coverage the Australian Labor Party has continued to give to the Catholic schools system throughout this debate, since this package was first put on the table some eight weeks ago. I do not dispute for one second that there are poorer Catholic schools across the country that deserve their fair share of funding. But, let's have a look at why those schools are not getting the support they deserve. We know from evidence given to the Senate inquiry and from a number of reports commissioned by the various Catholic schools commissions themselves that the Catholic schools systems have been funnelling money from poor schools to rich schools. They do that because they want to keep fees low across the board. So, poorer families are subsidising richer families and their kids at the more-wealthy Catholic schools. It is fundamentally unfair. There has been an extraordinary display over the past eight weeks in which the Labor Party, purely for politics, has continued to run a campaign to keep entrenched in this system an unfair advantage to Catholic schools across this country. Senator Collins spoke about the funding differences between public schools, Catholic schools and independent schools resulting from the changes to the model. We know that unless there is a change, unless we put in place a genuine needs based model, Catholic schools across this country will continue to get more money at the expense of public schools. That figure of $4.6 billion proves it. It proves what is wrong with the system that was put in place by Julia Gillard in the dying days of her government. It was a sop to the Catholic school system when it was done then. This group of amendments from the Labor Party tonight is a sop again.

The Catholic school system have been given a special deal by the government already. It has caused ructions in the government ranks. They have got themselves a special deal, yet today they have been walking the halls of parliament, camping outside Senator Lambie's office and begging for more. Give them an inch and they will take a mile.

If we fundamentally believe in needs based funding and in a fair system that looks after our kids who are most in need—our poorest public schools—it means that some of those independent or Catholic private schools are going to have to take a hit. That is the reality. Either you believe in needs based funding and in supporting public schools or you do not.

The Labor Party has been talking out of both sides of its mouth over this issue. How many press conferences have Tanya Plibersek and Bill Shorten held in Catholic schools in the last two months?

The CHAIR: Senator Hanson-Young, I remind you to refer to people in the other place by their correct titles.

How many press conferences have the Leader of the Opposition, Bill Shorten, and his deputy, Tanya Plibersek, held in Catholic schools in the last two months? A hell of a lot more than they have held in public schools. The protection racket has been in full swing, and these amendments strike right at the heart of what is wrong with this system. If you believe in needs based funding and you believe that public money should fund our public schools, it is time it was cleaned up.