22nd Jun 2017, 9:50 PM – Senate Australian Education Amendment Bill 2017 - in Committee - Commonwealth share

The majority voted against a request moved by South Australian Senator Sarah Hanson-Young (Greens), which means it failed.

Amendment text

(2) Schedule 1 , item 16 , page 6 (line 20) , omit "' 20% "' , substitute "' 24% "' .

Senator Hanson-Young explained that:

This amendment goes right to the heart of what we have been debating here tonight and over the last couple of months in this place. This is about ensuring that we look after our public schools. Currently under this legislation the government is proposing to fund 20 per cent from the federal government, 20 per cent of the share of getting schools up to their resource standard. We know that, in order to look after the neediest schools, the best thing we can do is increase the share of federal government funding to our public schools. We are worried that, in some states, they are simply not going to have the cash to get those schools up to standard in a reasonable amount of time. This amendment would ensure that the federal government does its best to look after all of those schools across the country, our public schools. That must be our priority. If we were to lift the Commonwealth share from 20 per cent it would cost the budget that magical number that we have heard a lot about over the last eight weeks—$22 billion.