“For goodness’ sake”: Jacqui Lambie blasts Labor’s deal with the Coalition
Independent senator Jacqui Lambie has slammed Labor’s decision to strike a deal with the Coalition government, allowing it to abolish a $4 billion education investment funding and redirect the money to disaster relief.
The opposition signed on to the emergency response fund on Wednesday night despite objections from the education spokeswoman Tanya Plibersek.
“Australian communities will be better prepared to face the threats from natural disasters this summer because of commitments Labor has secured from the government to significantly increase the amount of money spent on disaster preparedness,” said shadow minister for emergency management Murray Watt.
Lambie, who has been pushing for up to $100 million in funding to upgrade ageing TAFE facilities in Tasmania, said the government and the opposition were “failing our children” by passing the legislation.
“You may as well have shut down the [Education Investment Fund] and transferred all the money to ‘curling up on a rainy day with the good book fund’,” Lambie told the parliament on Thursday.
“Here they are, the last election, we’re gonna build up our TAFEs. Fifty million bucks? God almighty. I can get more out of the government with just one of me than what you people can with you all together.
“For goodness’ sake.
“What you’ve done is absolutely rip off our kids for the future.”
Watt said while the abolishment of the education fund was disappointing, the government’s commitment to provide an additional $50 million per year to TAFE encouraged Labor to lend support to the emergency response fund bill.
“As a result of climate change, we do face the certainty of increased frequency and scale of natural disasters into the future,” Watt told the upper house.
The Greens lambasted the arrangement, with Senator Mehreen Faruqi saying that Labor “used to be the party of public education”.
Some Labor MPs, including Plibersek and former research minister Kim Carr, have also expressed objections over the fund diversion. Last month, Carr said shutting down a dedicated national research infrastructure fund “is to court disaster”.