Kristina Keneally defends schools funding record as premier
A POLITICAL war of words has erupted over whether Labor’s Bennelong hopeful Kristina Keneally oversaw a schools funding cut — or increase — when state premier.
NSW
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A POLITICAL war of words has erupted over whether Labor’s Bennelong hopeful Kristina Keneally oversaw a schools funding cut — or increase — when state premier.
In an indication of how important the issue is in pursuing the vote of Chinese and Korean communities in the ethnically-diverse electorate, Labor leader Bill Shorten, education spokeswoman Tanya Plibersek and Ms Keneally lined up to deny the figures contained in the latest Productivity Commission analysis showing a $318 million slash in school cash in that year.
Those official figures are adjusted for inflation, but it is understood Labor would point to non-adjusted figures to show Ms Keneally presided over a $230 million increase in that time.
That’s left Education Minister Simon Birmingham suggesting Ms Keneally “doesn’t only need history lessons but she and the Labor Party clearly need accounting lessons too“.
Ms Keneally said on Monday the Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull “wants to talk about the past because he has no plans for the future”.
“Well the Keneally government’s budget shows that I increased funding to schools, the official productivity figures show I increased funding to schools,” Ms Keneally said.
“This is just Liberal smear.”
But educational experts and economists said the adjusted figures gave the true account of school resources.
Centre for Independent Studies education analyst Jennifer Buckingham said “if you’re going to talk about growth in funding, you have to adjust for inflation”.
“That’s why the official figures adjusted for inflation are called real dollars,” Dr Buckingham said.
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“If you don’t adjust then you don’t account for the purchasing power in the years being quoted.”
CommSec senior economist Ryan Feldman said “by adjusting you get the actual amount ... its real value”.
The official “real” funding for NSW schools dropped by $318 million in 2010/11, when Ms Keneally was premier.
Senator Birmingham told The Daily Telegraph that “Labor are turning their backs on accounting best practice because they’re trying to hide the truth about Keneally’s schools cuts”.
“Labor is determined to bury the truth about Keneally’s schools cuts. I’ll take the numbers from the economic hardheads at the independent Productivity Commission any day over the dunderheads in the Labor Party,” he said.