Senator PAYNE (New South Wales—Minister for Human Services) (14:17): I thank Senator Stephens for her question. If one wanted to talk about money being removed from schools funding in Australia, I think the best place to start would be the removal of $1.2 billion from schools funding by the previous government when they failed to reach agreement with all the states and territories. That would have meant there was no additional funding for students in Queensland, Western Australia and the Northern Territory—a small technical point that it appears those on the other side are trying to avoid. What is in fact the case with our education announcements in the budget is that we are investing a record amount of $64½ billion in recurrent funding for government and non-government schools over the next four years. The coalition has not only matched school funding dollar for dollar over the quadrennium of the previous government but increased it. That includes $1.2 billion for schools, from 2014 to 2017, over and above the funding committed by the previous government. Senator Moore: Mr President, on relevance: the question referred to a statement by the New South Wales education minister about concerns about $1.2 billion out of the current New South Wales budget. The PRESIDENT: There is no point of order at this stage. The minister still has 55 seconds remaining. Senator PAYNE: As I was saying, we ensured that students in Queensland, Western Australia and the Northern Territory do not miss out. That of course means—QED, I would have to say—that students in New South Wales were in a good position, the position that was committed to by the previous government. The position now sees the other states and territories—which were not included by the previous government; and $1.2 billion was removed from that funding—on an equal footing with states like New South Wales, South Australia and so on. That is the most important aspect of our funding program—to ensure that we are increasing funding, which we are, by a record amount of $64.5 billion in recurrent funding for government and non-government schools over the next four years.