House debates

Thursday, 1 June 2017

Personal Explanations

4:15 pm

Photo of Tanya PlibersekTanya Plibersek (Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | | Hansard source

Mr Deputy Speaker, I wish to make a personal explanation.

Photo of Mark CoultonMark Coulton (Parkes, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | | Hansard source

Does the honourable member claim to have been misrepresented?

Photo of Tanya PlibersekTanya Plibersek (Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | | Hansard source

Yes, I do.

Photo of Mark CoultonMark Coulton (Parkes, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | | Hansard source

Please proceed.

Photo of Tanya PlibersekTanya Plibersek (Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | | Hansard source

In question time today, the Prime Minister accused me of seeking to mislead the parliament about funding for Our Lady of La Vang school in Adelaide. The Prime Minister said that Our Lady of La Vang will receive an extra $3.9 million over the next 10 years and that the per student contribution from the Commonwealth in the government's estimator will go from $28,855 to $41,390 in 2027. He said:

Once again, the member for Sydney set out to mislead the House with claims of cuts that are simply not true.

This is absolutely wrong.

According to the department's funding estimation tool, which estimates funding under current arrangements provided by the Commonwealth Department of Education and Training to the National Catholic Education Commission, per student funding for Our Lady of La Vang school for 2017 is $62,663. According to the Commonwealth government's school funding estimator, per student funding in 2018 will be $29,969. That is a reduction of $32,695 per student. That is more than 52.18 per cent cut per student.

Photo of Mark CoultonMark Coulton (Parkes, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | | Hansard source

I thank the member for Sydney.