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

I thank Senator Duniam for his question and for his hard work and advocacy in favour of fair, consistent, needs-based funding for schools right around Australia. Senator Duniam is right that many schools—virtually all Australian schools—will stand to benefit from the Turnbull government's application of fair and consistent needs based funding.

Our investment of some $18.6 billion of additional resourcing will help the schools that need it most to obtain the resources that they need most. Just over the next few years that will see Tasmanian schools stand to benefit, with an additional injection of $56.7 million of support. Once again, they are the schools that need it most. It is providing total funding for those Tasmanian schools of some $1.8 billion of resourcing just over the next few years—an increase of 13.3 per cent for those schools.

Because it a model that genuinely reflects need and targets funding to where it is most needed, Tasmania will receive particular benefit. It will receive the second-highest per student support of any jurisdiction in Australia. When you bring that down to the individual school level, Edith Creek Primary School, for example, will see growth in terms of its per student support from the federal government to the tune of around $2,000 per student. That is, of course, a tangible benefit in a very small school. Edith Creek Primary School is a school of just 41 students. They will see an increase of around $446,000 in funding support into that school and total support of around $2.33 million under the Turnbull government support. It is schools like this one—small schools, high-need schools in states like Tasmania—that are getting the resources and support that they need and deserve.