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

As I have indicated to the Senate before, the government took a decision outside of the model as such to budget funding for the Northern Territory—the additional funds necessary for them to maintain their existing share of the schooling resource standard, noting the unique circumstances there and reflecting the fact that NT students will, of course, continue to receive far and away, as I was indicating to Senator McCarthy last night, the highest per-student funding in the country, befitting the needs of those NT students. As outlined in the budget, in no way is the Commonwealth proposing to reduce the share of the schooling resource standard for the Northern Territory. That is being topped up in the budget out of some additional funding, which is around $35.6 million over the budget period.