Mrs ELSON (2:42 PM) —My question is addressed to the Prime Minister. Would the Prime Minister advise the House of the views of state governments concerning the funding of private schools?

Mr HOWARD (Prime Minister) —I thank the honourable member for Forde for that question. Friday was a very good meeting, a very interesting meeting, not only in relation to the huge progress that we made in relation to salinity and water quality policies but also for the revealing attitude demonstrated by the premiers—right across the political divide—towards the funding of independent schools under the government's new formula. Perhaps I can best summarise the attitude of the meeting by quoting very briefly from the transcript of the joint news conference. I think joint news conferences are quite a good innovation after Premiers Conference meetings. It tends to bring about a certain level of cross-candour. In answer to a question I had this to say:

I was referring to the Premier of New South Wales—

The next contributor to the dialogue was the Premier of Queensland, Mr Beattie. He had this to say:

Let me repeat that:

That was the Premier of Queensland. He said:

The reality is that the Leader of the Opposition and the member for Dobell were left like shags on a rock by their Labor Party colleagues. Not one of your Labor Party colleagues criticised the government's independent schools formula. They, along with the independent school leaders, regard it as a fair, just and equitable formula, and the fact that none of them were willing to criticise it, none of them were willing to argue for any change, leaves you without any credibility in relation to your argument.