Susan Templeman (Macquarie, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

It beggars belief that those on the other side can talk about fairness in funding in this budget when they are content to slash $22 billion from schools yet at the same time give big business a $50 billion tax cut. That is $22 billion less than students would have received under a Labor government over the next 10 years. That is $22 billion that would employ teachers. It would provide speech therapists. It would put into schools the supports that benefit students and teachers alike. That is an average of $2.4 million less per school.

For my Catholic and public schools in Macquarie, in the Blue Mountains and in the Hawkesbury over the next two years alone, the difference under Labor's fully funded plan and the Liberals' sham is horrifying. I have seen the figures. Over the next two years alone, schools like Windsor High School, Winmalee High School, Warrimoo and Wilberforce will be hundreds of thousands of dollars worse off. Under a Labor government, by 2019 every school in New South Wales would have achieved 95 per cent of their schooling resource standard. That meant a level playing field for students and a strong base for our economic future. Under the Libs, they might never get there, and then the price that we as a society pay for that failure to invest in education is going to be extremely high. Those opposite should be absolutely ashamed of themselves.

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