Chris Crewther (Dunkley, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Will the Prime Minister update the House on how the government is delivering fair, transparent and needs based funding for every Australian student, including in my electorate of Dunkley? Is the Prime Minister aware of any alternative approaches?

Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for Dunkley for his question. Fifty primary and secondary schools and more than 27,900 students in Dunkley will benefit from my government's record investment in school education. As the principal of the Bayside Christian College, a school in the honourable member's electorate, recently said, 'When the Australian government recently announced a proposal for school funding, Gonski 2.0, we were overjoyed. Simply, this policy, which we understand to be needs based and sector blind, looks like really good and fair policy. With the implementation of this policy, we believe the current discrepancies in school funding will disappear and we'll have certainty of funding long into the future.'

We want every Australian child to have the best start in life. We want every student, regardless of the school they attend, to get a world-class education. We want our schools and our teachers to be the best in the world. That is why we are investing an extra $18.6 billion in schools over the next decade. That is why we are investing more than any previous federal government in our nation's history. Our schools funding package is fair, it is transparent, it is needs based and for the first time we will actually deliver the needs based funding model that David Gonski recommended six years ago. Before question time I heard an honourable member opposite saying that was not so. David Gonski clearly would not agree with her. The fact of the matter is that David Gonski's name was taken in vain by the Labor Party for years—27 secret deals, secret backroom deals, negotiated one after the other. There was no consistency, no transparency—they were anything but needs based. There was one need they were based on—the political need of the Gillard government. That was the only need they were based on. They certainly were not based on the needs of the students. We are delivering on those needs.

On 75 occasions the Leader of the Opposition has said that needs based funding is the only way you should fund schools—on 75 occasions. He said that the Labor Party was the only party that supported needs based funding. Based on their position at the moment, I would say the Labor Party is the only party represented in this chamber that does not support needs based funding, the only party that has abandoned David Gonski's model and the only party that has, in pursuit of shabby political advantage, abandoned Australian children and Australian schools shamefully. (Time expired)