Labor steps away from $14b state school spending plan

Opposition education spokeswoman Tanya Plibersek has indicated that a promise to boost public school spending by $14 billion over the next decade has been abandoned by the Labor Party.

A major promise to boost public school spending by $14bn over the next decade appears to have been abandoned by the Labor Party

Federal Labor made the significant pledge in 2019, with the major decade-long cash splash estimated to add more than 8257 teachers to the public system.

But Opposition education spokeswoman Tanya Plibersek, on the hustings in Brisbane on Monday, said states and territories were already midway through current agreements with the federal government so now was not the time for new negotiations.

This despite Labor clearing the way, when the announcement was made in 2019, for a whole suite of renegotiations after the national funding arrangements were settled in late 2018.

Ms Plibersek said Labor, if elected, would negotiate with schools in preparation for new agreements once the current ones expire in 2023.

She did not detail what Labor’s commitments were for future agreements but confirmed Catholic and independent schools would “not have their funding touched”.

Shadow Minister for Education Tanya Plibersek. Picture: NCA NewsWire / John Gass

Australian Education Union federal president Correna Haythorpe confirmed Labor had agreed to work with them toward “achieving 100 per cent” of the school resources standard (SRS).

The SRS is an estimate of how much total public funding a school needs to meet its students’ educational needs.

“The cost of delivering the full SRS will be determined by the next round of school funding negotiations between the commonwealth and state and territory governments after the election,” she said.

A spokesman for Acting Education Minister Stuart Robert slammed Labor for failing to provide “any detail” on how the party planned to fund the difference to get all schools to 100 per cent of the SRS.

Meanwhile, Ms Plibersek dodged a question on family law reform following comments from Queensland’s Women’s Minister Shannon Fentiman that review was necessary to help domestic violence victims.

Ms Fentiman said the operation of the Family Court was the number one issue victims raised with her, but “there hasn’t been a lot of change”.

“I think there needs to be a whole lot of work done, and probably an inquiry into the Family Court and how it deals, particularly, with violence against women and children,” she told The Courier-Mail.

Ms Plibersek said family law was “a very important element of federal government responsibility” and attacked the Morrison Government’s merging of the Family and Federal Circuit courts.

But asked whether a Labor government would review the family court with reform in mind, she did not answer.