Question Without Notice No. 78 asked in the Legislative Council on 20 March 2018 by Hon Jacqui Boydell
Parliament: 40 Session: 1
BOARDING AWAY FROM HOME ALLOWANCE 78. Hon JACQUI BOYDELL to the Minister for Education and Training:
I refer to the minister's comments on the boarding away from home allowance on 14 March during debate on motions on notice last week, when she said —
We cannot sustain a temporary measure that was put in place by royalties for regions.
Why has the government used royalties for regions to fund education assistants, independent learning coordinators and regional learning specialists if the minister believes that royalties for regions funding is temporary funding, and how will these positions be sustainable into the future?
Hon SUE ELLERY replied:
I thank the member for the question. We announced before the election how we would fund our election promises. We made it clear to people what we would do. I stand by the funding proposals that we put in place and I am confident that those positions will be sustainable into the future. The former government had eight and a half years to address the issue of how it dealt with the boarding away from home allowance, which is one allowance. The former government split one allowance into two funding sources. It had eight and a half years to put it all under one funding source and it chose not to.