Australian Education Union welcomes billion-dollar boost to NT public schools
Union reps have praised a billion-dollar boost to end ‘shameful’ underfunding in NT public schools, but an east-coast politician has slammed the deal as ‘half-arsed’.
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A billion-dollar boost to the Territory’s education system is a welcome relief after a long fight against chronic underfunding, but advocates haven’t put the battle aside yet.
The NT and federal governments on Wednesday revealed Territory public schools would finally reach 100 per cent of the Schooling Resource Standard thanks to a combined funding injection of $1.087 billion between from 2025-2029.
Australian Education Union NT branch president Michelle Ayres said the NT and federal governments’ joint commitment was a cause for “celebration”.
“This is exactly what we’ve been asking them to do - it’s a 40/60 split between the federal government and the NT government, both putting in funds to bring the NT up to 100 per cent,” Ms Ayres said.
“Our main concern would be around time frames – with the amount of gap that we have in our needs-based funding, we cannot afford to wait until 2029 to see the majority of this funding implemented.
“It has to happen as soon as possible.”
Australian Education Union federal president Correna Haythorpe said the current state of underfunding in the NT was “shameful”.
Ms Haythorpe also said most of the life-changing funding needed to be delivered well before 2029.
“We know that teachers and students need resources now,” she said.
The federal government will bring at least an additional $737.7 million to the table from 2025-2029.
The NT government will invest at least an additional $350 million in the same period.
“The Prime Minister must also ensure that the bilateral agreement signed this year removes the loophole in the current agreement that allows the NT to artificially inflate its SRS share by 4 per cent by including non-school costs such as capital depreciation,” Ms Haythorpe said.
“That Morrison-era loophole is denying NT public schools $40 million a year and Labor was clear in Opposition it would eliminate it from future agreements.
“Public schools need full not fake funding.”
NT Opposition Education spokeswoman Jo Hersey said the “cash splash only props up a broken system”.
Though the NT’s public school system has never been fully funded, Mrs Hersey blamed NT Labor for the horror financial gap.
“Today’s education announcement from the Prime Minister is another bail out for this incompetent NT Labor government’s mismanagement of our children’s future,” she said.
Mrs Hersey said the CLP’s approach to education would focus on increasing school attendance, boosting literacy and numeracy, and plugging teacher shortages.
“Under a CLP government we will restore the safety of students and staff by expanding School Based Policing and ensure qualified school counsellors are based in schools and properly resourced,” she said.
“We will fund truancy officers, tailored school support by region, and will hold parents accountable to get their kids to school.”
Federal Greens Primary and Secondary Education spokeswoman, Senator Penny Allman-Payne, said the billion-dollar boost was a “half-arsed effort”.
Mr Allman-Payne said she was “not going to do cartwheels” over a commitment she felt would not be enough to fully-fund Territory kids.
“Labor created this broken funding model when they fumbled the Gonski recommendations, and now they’re delivering a sloppy patch-up job and declaring ‘mission accomplished’,” she said.
“It’s been 12 years since Gonski, and now kids in the NT - which is the most egregiously under-resourced public system in the country - will have to wait another five years for funding that doesn’t even lift them to the minimum standard.”
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Originally published as Australian Education Union welcomes billion-dollar boost to NT public schools
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