Ms LANDRY (Capricornia—Assistant Minister for Children and Families) (15:43): I'm very pleased to have this chance to speak on this MPI. What a wonderful opportunity it is for me to highlight some of the tremendous achievements that the coalition government has delivered to ensure that every Australian child receives world-class education! The fact is that the coalition is providing record funding of $310.3 billion to state schools, Catholic schools and independent schools. That's an extra $37 billion, or a 62 per cent increase per student on average over a decade. This is real, needs based funding that is increasing every single year under our government. This ensures that every Australian child, no matter where they are, can access world-class education. This extends to child care as well. The coalition reforms have delivered a 7.9 per cent reduction in out-of-pocket costs to parents since our package was introduced. Our new $8.6 billion childcare package is providing greater access and more financial support for families who work the most and earn the least. Around one million Australian families who are balancing work and parental responsibilities are benefiting from the package. Seventy-five per cent of families pay no more than $50 per day in day care centres. Within that subset, 25 per cent of families pay no more than $20 per day to access quality childcare services. The new childcare package represents the most significant reforms to early childhood education and the care system in the past 40 years. I recently visited the Rockhampton South Kindergarten in my electorate to see firsthand the positive differences that these reforms have delivered to parents and young children. Another local childcare centre in my electorate, Capricornia In Home Care, received nearly $200,000 in funding through our Community Child Care Fund. This is part of our government's Child Care Safety Net, which aims to give the most vulnerable children a strong start while supporting parents into work. As the Assistant Minister for Children and Families, it was wonderful to announce this funding with the CEO Jason de Bakker and his team in person. This funding will help overcome some of the unique challenges childcare services in remote and regional areas currently face. It means that more hardworking families in Capricornia can take advantage of our government's childcare subsidy to work, learn or volunteer. Families in the bush get slugged with challenges that families in the city don't often face. This funding will help support the service to become more viable in the future. The coalition government has provided more than $120 million to 800 providers over five years to support more families to access child care through this initiative. I am very proud to be part of that. This government can be trusted with education. It should not be forgotten that, when Labor were last in office and the member for Maribyrnong was the education minister, $1.2 billion was cut from schools through secret funding deals. In government, Labor failed to provide ongoing needs-based school funding focused on students. They announced $6.6 billion in cuts to higher education. They cannot manage money, putting at risk our real-needs-based and record funding of schools. Australian government funding for schools is now based on student needs. Our agreement is fair and provides certainty over the next decade. We are backing the full implementation of NAPLAN to ensure that parents and teachers get transparency on student progress. We are improving teacher quality by testing trainee teachers to ensure that they are in the top 30 per cent for literacy and numeracy before they teach in schools. We are refocusing the Australian curriculum on the essentials. The Australian people can be assured that we remain committed to strengthening and building on our achievements in education. The coalition government are getting on with the job that the Australian people gave us because we continue to deliver.