Kate Ellis (Adelaide, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Education) Share this | Hansard source

And while my colleague says it is shameful, and I absolutely wholeheartedly agree with her, what is even worse is there is no guarantee that the $2.8 billion will not be entirely undermined by the fact that they have opened the door to state government cuts of the magnitude that we have seen in Western Australia by the Barnett government.

We know it is in years 5 and 6 of the school funding model that we really see the money start to flow. In years 5 and 6 we would expect to see $7 billion in additional money flowing from the Commonwealth to Australian schools. And while I believe that all of those statements before the election were nothing more than a sham, were nothing more than cynical politics, dishonesty and an absolute betrayal of the Australian public, we will find out for sure in just 10 weeks when we see the federal budget. The budget will speak far louder than any of the statements that the government tried to put forward. We can expect that if they are on a unity ticket with Labor when it comes to school funding reform, then we should expect that we will see part of this $7 billion of additional funding for our schools included in this budget. Over the next 10 weeks, in the lead-up to budget day, we will hear from parents and we will hear from teachers from across Australia—all of whom believe that they were misled by this government—urging those opposite to do the right thing and include this funding in the budget.

The other commitment that we expect to see in the budget is the commitment for students with disabilities so that the additional loading will be rolled out in Australian schools from next year, as was promised in the coalition's media release of 23 August. They explicitly stated:

… [this] will be used to deliver more funding for people with disability through the ‘disability loading’ in 2015.

There is no room for excuses. There is no room for weasel words. There is no room for the education minister to try to argue that black is white and white is purple. This is the time when we see for sure: we need to see the beginnings of this $7 billion in additional funding in the budget in just 10 weeks. And if this funding is not included in the upcoming budget, we will make sure that every parent, that every educator, that every principal, that every student in Australian schools know full well that all of these statements were nothing other than the biggest betrayal of the Australian community in a cynical move to try to get elected without meaning an absolute word of it.

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