Labor has decided to play politics with disability, making vulnerable families and students the next targets in their desperate education scare campaign.
 
…the Turnbull Government’s cuts to the More Support for Students with Disability program
– Kate Ellis and Jenny Macklin, Media Release, 13/4/16
 
FACT: The program was only ever a short-term temporary initiative to build the capacity of teachers, principals and other school staff and Labor funded it for 2012 and 2013. It was the Coalition that extended its funding by investing an additional $100 million in 2014. The Coalition has actually been investing an additional $5 billion for students with disability, including more than $1.3 billion in 2016 alone, and another $1.4 billion in 2017. 
 
We have more than matched the previous government’s pledges to programmes for students with disability, including $100 million extra this year and another $100 million next year.
 
We have also committed $409 million for the Inclusion Support Programme and specialist support to remove barriers so early childhood and child care services can include children with additional needs
 
[The Coalition] dumped the Gonski reforms and cut $30 billion from our classrooms…
– Kate Ellis and Jenny Macklin, Media Release, 13/4/16
 
FACT: There have been no cuts. The Turnbull Government is putting a record $69.4 billion into schools and that funding, including loadings for students with disabilities, will increase each and every year. 
 
The Liberals promised to fully fund the needs of students with disability in line with the Nationally Consistent Collection of Data on School Students with Disability, but instead they will go a whole term of government without doing anything at all, leaving tens of thousands of students missing out on the support they need.
– Kate Ellis and Jenny Macklin, Media Release, 13/4/16
 
FACT: Finalisation of the Nationally Consistent Collection of Data on School Students with Disability is determined by the states and territories through the Education Council. Data will be published and reforms ensue as soon as the states and territories have signed off on the accuracy and robustness of the data. Labor cannot be trusted on this subject – they spent six years promising to deliver NCCD and never followed through.
 
Students with disability and their families deserve better than the lies and hollow promises of Labor, whose failures in this area during their time in government are a lasting legacy.