Govt will fund school promises: Gillard

3 Sep 2012, 9:05 pm   -   Source: AAP

Prime Minister Julia Gillard says federal Labor is willing to "step up and provide additional resources" to help pay for its new schools funding plan.

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Prime Minister Julia Gillard says federal Labor has found $100 billion of savings over the past few budgets and will again find savings to help pay for its new schools plan.

Ms Gillard on Monday unveiled a new funding plan for the education sector, which will cost an extra $6.5 billion a year.

The prime minister will now negotiate with the states and territories over how their contributions will be split with the Commonwealth, which currently pays 30 per cent.

Ms Gillard says the federal government is willing to "step up and provide additional resources" to help fund the measures.

But she also pointed to federal Labor's record of finding savings in recent budgets to pay for its major policy commitments.

"We, over the last few budgets, have found $100 billion worth of savings," she told ABC television on Monday.

"We've moved expenditure from areas that we thought were of less priority than some of the things we wanted to get done for the Australian nation."

Ms Gillard was confident that her government would be able to fund recent policy announcements such as the $4 billion dental care package and the government's $1 billion commitment to the National Disability Insurance Scheme.

Federal Labor would also need to make some "budget adjustments" to pay for its plan to process asylum seekers on Nauru and Papua New Guinea's Manus Island, she said.

"You've got to make the right budget choices, whatever the timeframe ... and we will," Ms Gillard said.

"We will make budget choices that put resources where we believe they should go the most."

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