Nicolle Flint (Boothby, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

If there's one thing the Australian people can be certain about it's that they cannot trust Labor when they claim funding has been cut, and the Australian people can't trust Labor to fund the promises they make. The claims made by those opposite about funding cuts to South Australian schools is yet another example of the Labor Party deliberately misleading the Australian people. Unfortunately, there are a number of examples I can draw on to illustrate my point. Those opposite promised the National Disability Insurance Scheme but failed to fully fund it. I'm proud to say the Turnbull government is fully funding the NDIS. We are looking after the people in our community who most need our support. Labor promised the NBN but they had no plans to pay for it. In fact, under Labor, the NBN would have cost the Australian people something like $30 billion more and it would have taken six to eight years longer to deliver.

Getting back to the issue we're discussing today, when Labor promised increased funding for schools under Gonski, they did not fund it. In stark contrast, the Turnbull government is investing record funding into our schools and growing that funding in Australian schools. Unfortunately for the residents of my home state of South Australia, it's not just the federal Labor Party who have failed them; it's the state Labor Party too—the Weatherill Labor government. On the so-called Gonski scheme, the state Labor government failed South Australian schools in the most spectacular manner. Premier Jay Weatherill signed South Australia up to a deal that would deliver most of the money in years 5 and 6 of the program—money that we know was never in the forward estimates of the budget. That's right: the Premier of my home state of South Australia signed us up for a deal that delivered almost no money for schools in South Australia in years 5 and 6. The money never existed. It was all to be delivered in the magical years, and the money for those years was never passed by the parliament; it was never in the forward estimates. Those opposite know that this money didn't exist and that they never budgeted for it.

In stark contrast to Labor, the Turnbull government has funded its education policy. The coalition government is investing an extra $23.4 billion in schools over the next decade. I congratulate my South Australian colleague the Minister for Education and Training on the work he is doing in education. Thanks to the minister for education, funding per student is increasing by 52 per cent, on average. In my electorate of Boothby, I have some 24,800 students spread over 52 schools and they are going to benefit from this unprecedented investment in our education system and our school system. Schools in Boothby like Colonel Light Gardens Primary School, Clovelly Park Primary School, Eden Hills Primary School, Mitcham Girls High School, Aberfoyle Park High School, Seaview High School and Edwardstown Primary School will see a 24.3 per cent increase in funding by 2021, growing to 62.8 per cent over the next 10 years. I'm particularly proud of the funding increase for students at Suneden Special School in Mitchell Park, which is near my electorate office, which will see 58.1 per cent growth in funding by 2021, increasing to 131.6 per cent by 2027.

The previous speaker made some points about the support we give to students with disabilities, whether that is physical or intellectual. I'm quite concerned that they are scaring parents with children at these schools, because Suneden Special School is a fabulous example of the incredible support we are giving to the students who most need it. As I said, under the Turnbull government, funding for Suneden Special School will grow by 131.6 per cent over the next decade. Suneden is an independent school for children aged five to 21 years with intellectual and multiple physical disabilities. Currently, the school has about 70 students in attendance and their classes have a high staff-to-student ratio to ensure all students have adequate support through their learning.

The Turnbull Liberal government's schools funding overhaul means, on average, an extra $262 of funding for every student in South Australia in 2018 and $1,099 more by 2021. We are delivering more specialist support, teachers and resources for our schools. We are delivering a more transparent, fairer and more sustainable funding arrangement. We've engaged David Gonski to investigate how our extra funding can be best used to improve results to address the decline in student results over the last decade. We are delivering in education. (Time expired)

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