Anthony Chisholm (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

You don't advance the interests of students by pitting public schoolkids against non-government schoolkids. Labor has actually acted and announced $14 billion of funding to public schools. We won't be taking lectures from the Greens. Last year the Greens wanted to vote with the government to cut funding to public schools, and Senator Hanson-Young called it a once-in-a-generation opportunity. The only reason the Greens opposed it in the end was because Lee Rhiannon took on the party leadership and won in the party room, and that stand subsequently cost her her job. And who replaced her? Senator Faruqi. This is absolute hypocrisy from Senator Faruqi and the Greens—knock off Lee Rhiannon for defending public schools and then try to claim the moral high ground. Only Labor stood up for public schools from the start, and only Labor can be trusted with public schools.