Ms Julie Bishop (Curtin, Liberal Party, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Women's Issues) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Mr Speaker. This means that schools that have not yet been successful or have only received a small amount of funding can now apply for the opportunity to receive up to $100,000 in funding.

I do acknowledge the support of the Leader of the Opposition for this program. He said it was a very practical and useful program. But this does beg the question: why is it that the state governments are not investing in their schools? This program has highlighted the chronic neglect of state government schools, and the funding has gone to fix some very basic items in government schools. When the Leader of the Opposition has his meetings with state premiers, perhaps he could ask them to match the federal government’s rate of increase in government schools. In the 2006 budget, while the Australian government increased funding for government schools by 11 per cent, the state governments only increased it by four per cent. Had the states matched the federal rate of funding, there would have been an extra $1.4 billion in 2006 for government schools. I call on the Leader of the Opposition to join the government in asking state governments to properly invest in their schools, as we are doing.

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