Bridget McKenzie (Victoria, National Party, Minister for Regional Services) Share this | Hansard source

The $1.2 billion is actually part of a broader $4.5 billion package to ensure that the transition of our needs based funding package for Australian school students is delivered on the ground in a way that maximises outcomes for our students. Those opposite found it all too easy to ensure that 27 dirty deals were done with different state education ministers in the dying days—that was code for delivering equitable outcomes to Australian school students. In reality, those states that did not sign up to the Gillard-Greens backed school funding arrangement actually saw students with the same needs in Indigenous schools, in country schools and in Catholic schools in different states treated very differently.