Public Schools

Most kids in this part of Melbourne go to a public school. Those schools run on tight budgets – and often on canteen rosters, fundraisers, and parents chipping in for things you'd assume were already covered. A fair go for working families means their local public school getting its fair share, not whatever's left after everyone else.

So it's worth looking at how the votes have gone when public schools were the ones on the line.

Here's one that surprised us. There's a Commonwealth fund that helps schools pay for new buildings – classrooms, halls, equipment – but only private schools can apply to it. Public schools aren't eligible at all. In 2019, parliament had the chance to set up an equivalent fund for public schools. Pauline Hanson and Malcolm Roberts voted no.

That wasn't the only time. Every time public school funding has come to a vote, the answer's been the same.

December 2019 – A drought fund public schools were shut out of

When a $10 million hardship fund was set up for schools struggling through the drought, public schools had already been left out of an existing Commonwealth program. Parliament voted on fixing that. The Senate vote tied, 32 votes to 32 – and in the Senate, a tied vote automatically fails. There's no tie-breaker. Three One Nation members – Pauline Hanson, Malcolm Roberts, and Cory Bernardi – voted no, and the tie is the reason the fund fell over.

July 2019 – A building fund for public schools

Five months earlier, the motion to give public schools the same capital works fund private schools could already access. Pauline Hanson, Malcolm Roberts and Cory Bernardi voted no.

June 2017 – A funding model that delivered less

When the government's new schools funding bill came to a vote, parliament first considered an amendment stating plainly that the bill delivered less than the arrangements already in law. Pauline Hanson and Malcolm Roberts voted to advance the bill anyway. Barnaby Joyce voted no in the House against a separate attempt to reject the same lower-funding model.

February 2017 – Needs-based funding

Months before that, Malcolm Roberts had already voted no on a separate motion supporting needs-based school funding – the principle that money should follow the kids who need it most.

The pattern

Five votes, across two years, on capital works, drought relief, and how school funding is shared out. Each time, One Nation senators voted against public schools getting a fairer deal – and on one of them, their votes were the margin.

It's worth being straight about one of these. On the 2017 funding bill, total school funding did rise – One Nation's votes helped lock in a model that delivered less than what was already legislated, not a cut in raw dollars. We've included it because it's part of the record, but that's the honest shape of it.

Don't take our word for any of this. Every vote here is a matter of public record – you can look it up yourself at theyvoteforyou.org.au or on the Australian Parliament's website.