Rowan Ramsey (Grey, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

There is a fair chance, mate. If you are sitting around long enough—I suspect you may not—you might found out that it does. Let me tell you that the correct way to deal with this is to have a mechanism that responds to the conditions of the day. I have had a run through and I have had a look at the schools in Grey—on My Schools—and guess what? Everyone is going to be better off. Every single one of them. No wonder my phone hasn't been running hot. Over this period the government is making a very important statement that we are up to the game for the long haul. We are going to push Commonwealth funding for state government schools, and remember these are state government schools, to 20 per cent—up from 17.6 per cent.

I will point out that in the state of South Australia, at least, 50 per cent of the income of the state government comes from the federal government anyhow, but we are pushing up our contribution to 20 per cent. For the non-government school sector we are going to 80 per cent. These are nice, simple figures. You can call it the 80-20 rule or the 20-80 rule if you like, but it is the rule which will guide government over the next decade. Schools know what they are dealing with. They know that they are going to receive funding on their needs—on the SRS model that the Labor government of the time put in place.

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