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

I seek leave to move the following motion:

That:

That the House:

(1) notes the Prime Minister:

(a) is cutting $22 billion from schools to pay for his $50 billion big business handout, including to the big banks;

(b) is cutting an average of $2.4 million from each school, a cut which is the equivalent of sacking 22,000 teachers;

(c) is attacking public education, with only one in seven government schools reaching a fair level of funding by 2027;

(d) ambushed the Catholic school system with cuts that will increase fees for parents by thousands of dollars each year or force schools to close; and

(e) refuses to acknowledge the unfairness of his schools plan despite criticism from state governments, educators, schools, teachers, parents and even his own MPs; and

(2) censures the Prime Minister for taking money off schoolkids and giving it to bankers and foreign shareholders.

Leave not granted.

I move:

That so much of the standing and sessional orders be suspended as would prevent the Deputy Leader of the Opposition from moving the following motion forthwith:

That the House:

(1) notes the Prime Minister:

(a) is cutting $22 billion from schools to pay for his $50 billion big business handout, including to the big banks;

(b) is cutting an average of $2.4 million from each school, a cut which is the equivalent of sacking 22,000 teachers;

(c) is attacking public education, with only one in seven government schools reaching a fair level of funding by 2027;

(d) ambushed the Catholic school system with cuts that will increase fees for parents by thousands of dollars each year or force schools to close; and

(e) refuses to acknowledge the unfairness of his schools plan despite criticism from state governments, educators, schools, teachers, parents and even his own MPs; and

(2) censures the Prime Minister for taking money off schoolkids and giving it to bankers and foreign shareholders.

Isn't it incredible that tonight, on budget night, we are going to have a Treasurer who stands up here and defends a decision to give a $50 billion tax giveaway to the biggest businesses in this country, including the four biggest banks, at the very same time that he will be cutting funding to Australian schools? What we have is a government who are trying to get away with this fiction that they are somehow increasing schools funding. Hang on a minute—what are they doing? They are doing something not quite as bad as Tony Abbott did in 2014, and for that—

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