Leaders from the Labor Party are heading back to school today but they need to make sure they go to a maths class after issuing an embarrassing media release riddled with mistakes and mistruths.
 
The simple fact is that the school Tanya Plibersek, Penny Wong and Susan Close are visiting today is set for a $6.2 million funding increase under the Turnbull Government’s Gonski needs-based funding plan.
 
That means extra resources and the individual attention from teachers that students need to succeed.
 
The funding increase for Trinity Gardens Primary however will require SA’s Education Minister Susan Close to pass on the record and growing money she will receive for that school from the Commonwealth. 
 
The latest available data shows that Minister Close and the Weatherill Labor Government slashed funding to SA students by an average of $199 each between 2013/14 and 2014/15, ripping around $45.5 million out of South Australia’s schools. Over the same period, the Federal Liberal Government increased funding to South Australian schools by $28.3 million. 
 
Ms Plibersek and Senator Wong should spend less time lying to primary students about the support they are getting from the Commonwealth, and more time asking Minister Close and Jay Weatherill what they’ve been doing with the extra funding they’re getting from the Federal Government. It’s certainly not making its way to schools. 
 
Our plan will deliver an extra $2,454 on average to South Australian students, well above the national average increase of $2,300. That’s an extra $406 million for South Australian public schools, and $706 million for all SA schools over the next decade. What’s shameful is that Tanya Plibersek and Penny Wong voted against those funding increases in Parliament. 
 
While a strong level of funding for schools is vital, what’s more important is how that funding is used. David Gonski and a panel of experts will chair a review of what initiatives and programs will help turnaround our stagnating and declining student performance and help to boost the preparedness of students for life after school.
 
The Turnbull Government’s plan for schools is clearly laid out, but Bill Shorten and the Labor Party can’t even tell Australians where they’d get the money and how or on which schools they’d spend the extra $17 billion of fantasy money they’re promising.
 
Just last year, even the South Australian state premier Jay Weatherill said he didn’t trust the Federal Labor Party to come up with the money to fund schools. 
 
“…as yet, we haven’t, I don’t think, seen a comprehensive programme from Federal Labor about how they’re going to fund this gap.” – on Breakfast, 891 ABC Adelaide
 
I call on the Labor Party to drop the scare campaign. The facts about our plan are there for all Australians to see. It’s only Labor that seems confused about whether to support needs-based funding and how schools should be funded.

Category: Media Releases