Trevor Evans (Brisbane, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

As the Prime Minister said yesterday, there is nothing fairer than ensuring that Australians are told the truth about the public finances of their country and ensuring, as we have done in this budget, that there are funds committed to deliver the National Disability Insurance Scheme.

Who is fairer? The Labor Party, that make big promises but never put the money in place for the NDIS? Or this government, that delivers the funding and the certainty for people with disabilities, their carers and their families? Who is fairer? This government, that has just delivered tax cuts for Australia's small- and medium-sized businesses? Or the Labor Party, that I suspect we will see tonight seeking to reverse those changes and just jacking back up the prices and the taxes on small businesses which would otherwise continue to drive this economy and to create so many jobs and opportunities in the years ahead? Who is fairer? The Labor Party, that bastardised the Gonski review and the Gonski name by coming up with 27 different secret deals around the country, not visible to any parents or to most schools? Or this government, that finally delivered the consistent and transparent approach to school funding that Gonski originally intended?

I have 46 schools across my electorate of Brisbane, and under the school funding announcements made by this government and funded in this budget well over 40 of those schools will be getting an incredibly significant funding increase. I have a handful of local schools that will receive approximately the same funding going forward, and I do have one local school that will receive a cut of about one per cent in future years. With all of those facts in mind, I encourage all parents around Brisbane to check out the online estimator and to see for themselves how much better off their school will be—in fact, to look at the funding for so many different schools around Brisbane and how that will change.

I know that the school funding announcements made by this government and funded in this budget are eminently fair. We are creating a system that is equitable and needs based, as David Gonski originally intended, whereas Labor had such little confidence in their school funding model that they kept the numbers secret. The transparency of school funding we are providing is the key. It demonstrates the fairness for all to see and it stands in stark contrast to the unfair approach of Labor when it comes to school funding.

With the modern Labor Party you cannot just listen to what they say; you have to look at what they do. What was their record on fairness when they had the responsibility of being in government? No more surplus and no more savings—all gone, thanks to the class warfare of those opposite. Thanks to the member for Rankin, who was with the member for Lilley, the then Treasurer, all the way. Labor set Australia on this course where the next generations will be saddled with their mistakes. And they talk about fairness? We will see tonight.

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