Catryna Bilyk (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I remind those opposite who are trying to interject that I worked with yelling three-year-olds for many, many years. So, Senator Williams, I'm not really interested in what you are yelling from over there. When you live in a glass house, though, you shouldn't throw stones. That's what I will remind those opposite. This government never, ever explained to the Australian people how they were going to afford their corporate tax cut when they were pursuing an $80 billion tax cut for big business, including $17 billion for the banks.

The other predictable argument that will come from those opposite is that you cannot fix a problem simply by throwing money at it. As I've pointed out time and time again in this place, this is a bit of a strawman argument, because that's not all that Labor is proposing to do. Not only is it a strawman argument; it's also hypocritical. It was those opposite who ditched Labor's school improvement plan, a national agreement aimed at improving students' results in reading, maths and science. What did they replace it with? Nothing. That's right. For five years, those opposite have handed over federal school funding to the states and territories without any accountability.

We accept that funding isn't the only solution. What we don't accept, though, is the suggestion that funding isn't part of the solution, especially funding that is directed at schools and students who need it most. I'm a regular visitor to local schools and, in the course of visiting schools, I've spoken to dozens, if not hundreds, of teachers. From speaking to teachers in the most disadvantaged schools I understand what additional funding would mean for them and what they could achieve with their students if they had more resources.

In my home state of Tasmania, our commitment to reverse the Liberal school cuts would mean another $50 million for Tasmanian schools over the first three years. Depending on each school's needs, we would see more support staff, extra teachers and teacher assistants or smaller class sizes—or some combination thereof. Australians with children in the most disadvantaged schools, especially public schools, understand that, if they want their kid to get the best start in life, they will need to elect a Shorten Labor government.