Helen Polley (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Aged Care) Share this | Hansard source

Before I touch on the topic I want to speak about today, I want to promote the hashtag #womenshearts and put that firmly on the agenda. It is about raising awareness that heart disease and heart attacks is the No. 1 killer of women in this country.

But I now want to turn to the fantasy land that we have been experiencing here in this chamber for most of the morning with the debate that is going on in relation to the outrageous attacks that have been made by this government on the Australian education system: $22 billion dollars is what this government wants to take away from every school child in this country. This government sees education as a cost. But education is about investing in our children. It makes good economic sense. That is fundamentally what the difference is between us and those on that side, who want to cut education. They want to take money away from schoolchildren to give to the big end of town. They want to take money away from our schoolchildren to give millionaires a tax cut. That is what those people are about: Gonski 2. We had Gonski 1, which gave us all the research and told us what was in the best interests at that time for our schoolkids. That is what we are supporting. We will fight, along with every school in this country. After all, 90 per cent of schools in this country do not support the government's legislation. They do not support it.

This government is in turmoil. We have seen since the last election that they have been dysfunctional. We have a Prime Minister who has no control over his caucus. Their own caucus is not being given full information when it comes to the education bill that is before the Senate. They are engaged in a war with themselves. Senator Back, who is leaving the Senate this week, is threatening to cross the floor. He has had a lot of experience with Catholic education in this country and he knows this measure is bad. Senator Duniam is laughing about the cuts. He is laughing about the money that is going to be taken away from every school in Tasmania, his home state. It will be interesting to see if the Catholic Education Parents and Friends Association invites him this year to open their conference. I don't think they will, because Catholic Education knows that this government is the worst government in five decades when it comes to education. Senators on the other side laugh—give a big clap; this is really funny! But people on this side of the chamber will not enter into any deal at all to take away money from our kids, and we certainly will never support the dirty deals that you do with the Greens.