Zed Seselja (ACT, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I might start where Senator Carr left off. With respect to a couple of the points he made, he seemed to be a little bit confused about the argument he was trying to prosecute. In taking up the case of WA, he in fact made the coalition's case. The only party that was taking money away from the people of WA was the Labor Party. That was part of the $1.2 billion that the Labor Party ripped out of education—from WA, Queensland and the Northern Territory. I am not sure which part of that Senator Carr does not understand. But he seemed to be quite confused in delivering his arguments.

I go to both Senator Carr's and Senator Wong's points. It is clear that the Labor Party always accuses other people of their worst sins. That is what we are seeing here in relation to this education debate. The party which were so dishonest in government are now trying to claim that the coalition is in fact no better. Let us look at the facts as we deal with it.

The Labor Party is now criticising the coalition government for delivering more money for education. The coalition has committed to delivering more money for education than would have been delivered had the Labor Party been re-elected. The Labor Party was to rip $1.2 billion out of education. Chris Bowen and Kate Ellis confirmed that they were to rip $1.2 billion out of education.

Another point to make is that we believe in a national funding agreement, not a funding agreement that goes to some states and territories but a national funding agreement which covers all six states and both territories. That is the fundamental difference. The coalition is now being criticised by those opposite for committing to the same amount of money for the states that signed up and also committing to an additional amount of money for those who will now sign up. That is what we are being criticised for in this chamber today.