Senator BIRMINGHAM (South Australia—Minister for Education and Training) (14:12): Catholic schools around Australia are set to benefit from the Turnbull government's reforms, seeing real growth in their funding right around the country. It is growth from $6.3 billion of funding that goes into the eight different Catholic education commissions this year in 2017, and grows to $9.7 billion by 2027, going to those same eight different Catholic education systems. There are those who want to live in an alternative universe, where they pretend that 'funny money' that was never budgeted for somehow exists and can be provided ad nauseam to the highest— The PRESIDENT: Senator Wong, a point of order. Senator Wong: Thank you, Mr President. I wonder if we could raise the issue of direct relevance. The minister is happy to talk about the Labor Party, but we were actually asking him about Senator Back's quote, which was referring to the system of weighting that was being changed. The minister has not actually gone to that point. It is all very well for him to talk about the Labor Party, but we are asking about what Senator Back says about this minister's changes to the system of weighting. The PRESIDENT: Thank you, Senator Wong. I will remind the minister of the question. Minister, you have one minute and 25 seconds in which to answer. Senator BIRMINGHAM: The legislation before this chamber, the legislation that the Turnbull government is giving needs based funding effect to, that legislation will provide over the decade around $81 billion in funding support for Catholic education. It will see growth over the next few years of 3.7 per cent per annum per student, on average, across Catholic education authorities, who will retain the absolute right to redistribute funding as they see fit. The PRESIDENT: Senator Carr, a point of order. Senator Kim Carr: My point of order is on the question of relevance. The question specifically asked the minister to comment on the issue of the weighting of the funding arrangements, the mechanism by which that funding is distributed. That is the nub of the issue here. I ask that the minister be asked to direct his remarks directly to the question. The PRESIDENT: The actual question was not about weighting but it inferred weighting. I do agree with you; the minister has not addressed the subject matter directly. But the minister has half the time left to answer the question. I call the minister. Senator BIRMINGHAM: The model we are proposing, net all of the changes in terms of providing consistent application of SES scores around the country, will actually put in place growing funding for Catholic education. That is the point that we have emphasised time and time again. People may wish to create scare campaigns and use scare tactics, but the truth is there is $3.4 billion of additional funding growth that will come into Catholic education in the course of the next 10 years. That is net all of the different changes to the funding model to provide consistency, to provide fairness and to treat all non-government schools across the country equally, according to the same methodology and the same formula, not special deals that might be carved out for one sector, one system or one state, like those opposite sought to do. The PRESIDENT: Senator Chisholm, a supplementary question.