George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Sterle, I see you are relying on some press reports of remarks attributed to Senator Seselja. I do not know and I am not in a position to tell you what conversation Senator Seselja and the Prime Minister may or may not have had, but I can tell you this, Senator Sterle: you should have been listening to my friend Senator Birmingham when he answered questions from your side of the chamber, because the school-funding package that Senator Birmingham announced last week as part of the 2017-18 budget will increase school funding over the next decade by $18.6 billion.

As Mr David Gonski himself has said, in the words that Senator Birmingham quoted, it will return to the principles of needs-based funding that he embraced and espoused in his 2011 review but which the former Labor government never implemented but left the system in a complete mess with no fewer than 27 different funding deals.

The package that Senator Birmingham announced last week will treat all students fairly. It is based entirely on the principle—