With the short time I have got available, when I left off previously I was talking about school funding, and in the time since my last contribution the school funding deal has been signed. But what I would point out, as I commented at the time, is that the federal Liberal bad deal won out over the state government’s bad deal. The current bad deal will make sure that the public school system is still underfunded—even until 2028 under this deal that has been signed. What the state government was putting on the table was that public schools would be fully funded, but in 2028. Public school students and public schools cannot wait another decade, or off into the never-never, for their schools to be fully funded. This is the Gonski deal that was set out years ago.
We are still not seeing those public schools fully funded, which is what we need to do. I would urge the state government and the federal government to bring forward the full funding of our public schools to at least around 2023. That is what needs to happen. Our schools cannot wait. To conclude, this entire budget was really the Premier’s missed moment to put the environment and our climate at the heart of the budget. Instead we are going to have coal burning for decades, the waste crisis continuing, the environment continuing to decline and homelessness and the public housing waiting list continuing to rise. It is not good enough.
