Dear Sir,
I note the Member for Richmond Justine Elliot is still using her taxpayer-funded entitlement to mislead your readers. Her latest advertisement of the 6th of April accuses the Australian Government of “cutting $30 billion from our schools”. Readers should be told the truth – the cuts Ms Elliot refers to are from a 2013 election promise by Labor that was never funded and incidentally is still not funded under any of Labor’s current policies. Under the current Government from 2014-2017, total funding to government schools in NSW has been $7.2 billion , an increase of 43.7% over this period. This is the second biggest funding increase to government schools in Australia. The 81 schools in Richmond saw a 28% increase in Commonwealth recurrent funding during this period, a $438.6 million investment. Total Commonwealth
funding to government schools in New South Wales will increase by $562.9 million by 2019-20, a 31.9% increase from 2015-16, and there will be a 21.3% increase for non-government schools.
In response to Ms. Elliot’s claim that “you can’t trust the Liberals and Nationals on education”, I say you can’t trust her to give you the indisputable facts.