Senator DASTYARI (New South Wales) (15:03): I move: That the Senate take note of the answers given by the Minister for Education and Training (Senator Birmingham) to questions without notice asked by Senators Gallacher and Dastyari today relating to school funding.. I want to take note of these and speak to some of the inconsistencies and myths that were presented by the Minister for Education and Training, Senator Birmingham, in answers to questions that he gave moments earlier. But before doing so, I do also want to note that yesterday I had the privilege of being able to take my daughter to her first day at school. While many of us are going to debate over the next year how we can better fund our schools, how schools should be funded and what needs to be done to make sure we have the best possible education system, we should all be incredibly proud of the numerous teachers, principals and volunteers who make our education system as fantastic as it is. But, while we have a fantastic education system—particularly in my home state of New South Wales—it can and it should be improved. I think it is disappointing that the minister—Minister Birmingham—outlined and actually undercut comments made by the National Catholic Education Commission, which said that the failure to properly fund the future years of the Gonski model will have the result that: … fees will increase, schools could close and the quality of education will be compromised. Ultimately, the government has been trying to set up a straw man argument, and the straw man argument is this: that it is all about funding—that the Gonski model and the Labor proposals that we put forward over the past year, and also the entire process over the past several years, has simply been about funding. Funding is an important component of it. Funding is the start. You cannot have a better education system if you are not prepared to pay for it. But what the Labor proposals have been saying, and what the Gonski model has addressed fundamentally, is: how do you make sure you make the most of more funding, how do you get the best bang for your buck and how do you work towards a more equal, a more fair and a more equitable system? You cannot achieve that if you do not start with a base of better funding for our education system. Before the last election the Liberals promised—and this was Christopher Pyne, who was the shadow minister at the time— Senator Brandis: 'Mr Pyne' to you! Senator DASTYARI: Minister Pyne. He was not Minister Pyne at the time, he has become Minister Pyne. Senator Brandis: I said 'Mr Pyne'. Senator DASTYARI: He said at the time—and I am quoting a press conference on 29 August 2013: … you can vote Liberal or Labor and you'll get exactly the same amount of funding for your school … That turned out to be a statement that was not true. That turned out to be a statement that is untrue. We also had the then Leader of the Opposition, who became the Prime Minister and who is now a quiet and subservient backbencher—a Mr Tony Abbott—talk about an absolute 'unity ticket' when it came to school funding. Then, as if that were not enough, the official Liberal Party-endorsed sign at the election on 7 September 2013—properly authorised by the Liberal Party—said: Liberals will match Labor's school funding dollar for dollar. After the election was over we saw these promises broken. We saw teachers betrayed; we saw students, parents and principals in every state and territory ripped off. Over Christmas, when there was a presumption that nobody was watching, the Prime Minister, Mr Malcolm Turnbull, made the decision to dump the Gonski reforms and cut $30 billion in future potential funding from our schools. To break this down: on average, that is $3.2 million from every school, which will mean fewer subject choices, less support for students with disability, fewer literacy and numeracy programs, learning support cuts and less training for teachers. Fundamentally this all comes down to the priorities of a government and what a government should, wants to and chooses to prioritise. We have seen from the answers from the minister today and in the decisions that have been made by this government that they have decided that the future education of our children is not a priority. For this to all happen just as children go back to school is a tragedy.