The government won't be supporting this amendment. The Minister for Education has been clear: there will be no blank cheques, and additional funding needs to be tied to reform.

It is important that this be a joint effort between the Commonwealth and the states and territories. This amendment wants the Commonwealth to bear the entire burden of filling the five per cent funding gap. This ignores the way that funding for our public schools works and how it is a shared responsibility between us and the states and territories.