Gonski 2.0: Government vows another $5b to get revamp over the line
THE Turnbull government will add an extra $5 billion sweetener to its schools funding plans in a bid to get the contentious education reforms over the line.
NSW
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THE Turnbull government will add an extra $5 billion sweetener to its schools funding plans in a bid to get the contentious education reforms over the line and through the Senate.
Despite the Greens capitulating to their own internal divisions and the powerful education union, Education Minister Simon Birmingham clinched crucial votes from Nick Xenophon and Pauline Hanson, all but ensuring the Gonski funding reset passes.
After days of negotiations and having obtained almost all the concessions they had sought, the Greens yesterday distanced themselves from the reforms after the government gave some schools a one-off $50 million transition break.
Schools will receive $22.9 billion in total under the reforms, with $3.3 billion of the extra $4.9 billion agreed to yesterday flowing to public schools.
If the funding deal passes, it would be a major victory for Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and his government, which has remained behind Labor in recent polls and which faces a difficult internal fight over a clean energy target.
In a bid to stymie opposition from its own backbenchers, the government has agreed to provide the $50 million transition fund to Catholic schools and private schools which operate under a “systemic” model.
Retiring Liberal senator Chris Back had threatened to vote against the government, and was yesterday afternoon still negotiating over specific details of the plan.
The new money will begin on January 1, and one year later systemic Catholic, Lutheran and Anglican schools will be assessed for funding individually rather than together.
There will also be an independent resourcing agency that will review the socio-economic status of schools.
That is used to decide on how much funding each school receives, and comes after Catholic school sector criticism that the current system is arbitrary and does not work properly.
Senator Xenophon referred to the businessman and architect of the original Gonski report, commissioned by former Labor education minister Julia Gillard back in 2010, as he voiced his support for the revamped reforms.
“(They) can fantasise about the money they never had, they never paid for, they never financed.”
“This is the real Gonski with David Gonski and his panel saying it would be a disaster for Australian education if this package wasn’t passed,” Senator Xenophon said.
“Ultimately, we do not want this to be the enemy of the good and this is a very good package for Australian children.”
The new money comes after weeks of debate, with the Australian Education Union, at times split, and Catholic schools aggressively campaigning against the reforms.
The AEU and the National Catholic Education Commission maintain they would be better off under 27 separate deals struck by the Gillard government.
But the last two years of that six-year plan were never legislated, and do not appear in any budget.
Labor’s education spokeswoman Tanya Plibersek said schools would lose funding next year.
“If they really want to rip $30 billion out of schools, as (former Coalition PM) Tony Abbott did in 2014, then this government will face the rage of parents and teachers,” she said. “This just cuts $22 billion from schools.”
But Mr Turnbull said Labor’s funding commitment was “a hallucination”.
“(They) can fantasise about the money they never had, they never paid for, they never financed,” he said.
Despite last-minute Catholic school lobbying, Victorian senator Derryn Hinch, recently elected South Australian Lucy Gichuhi and Tasmanian Jacqui Lambie have indicated they would also support the legislation.
Liberal Democratic senator David Leyonhjelm was considering his position yesterday afternoon.
But Greens leader Richard Di Natale said his party would not vote for the legislation, despite the government agreeing to extra funding and the independent review body as requested.
“If the government decides it wants to proceed with a deal where there are special carve-outs (for Catholic schools), we can’t support it,” Senator Di Natale said.
“There’s additional funding for the Catholic sector under this model that is completely inconsistent with what Gonski originally proposed.”
The Greens appeared likely to oppose the new plan despite complaining the current arrangements were a “complete dog’s breakfast” and more money was needed.
Greens senator Janet Rice said Labor had failed to lock in funding when they were in government “because they wanted to use school funding in political game playing”.
But the NSW Greens had already pressed hard-left senator Lee Rhiannon not to support any deal should it have been struck, while it is understood there was significant reluctance among others to back the reforms.
The AEU and the NSW Teachers’ Federation have threatened to campaign aggressively against crossbenchers who supported Mr Birmingham’s reforms.
A spokesman for the Catholic Education Commission said a longer transition period for schools had not allayed their concerns about the funding reforms.
“Concessions — real or imagined — won’t fix the problems with this rushed legislation,” he said.
“The best course of action (is) sitting down with Catholic, government and independent school leaders to devise a school funding model that will deliver genuine needs-based funding for all students in all sectors.”
Under the reforms, announced last month, a small number of wealthy private schools will lose funding, while public schools will get the biggest increases.
The NSW government has been reluctant to accept the new arrangement after striking a lucrative deal with the previous federal Labor government.
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