Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Education and Training) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Collins seems to think that this is okay. That seems to be what her interjections are suggesting. Senator Collins seems to be suggesting that we should have left students in those states worse off, because those opposite never budgeted for it. Well, we wanted to make sure that they were cared for and that we did deliver the funding in those states, as we did in every other state. And so it was critically important that we took the decision not just to match dollar for dollar what was in the budget when we came to office but to put $1.2 billion extra in and, of course, commit to year-on-year funding growth thereafter. (Time expired)