Canberra private school receives $10m a year but is accused of not paying wages or taxes

Taxpayers have been handing $10m a year to a private school embroiled in legal action over allegedly unpaid taxes and teacher wages, prompting demands for better oversight of private schools.

Senate estimates heard arguments from the Greens that public school fees had risen too far too fast. It came as the Education Department confirmed it had warned one private school not to spend government money on litigation. Picture: iStock

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Taxpayers have been handing $10m a year to a private school embroiled in legal action over allegedly unpaid taxes and teacher wages, prompting demands for better oversight of private schools.

The federal Education Department has revealed it first looked into the financial compliance of Brindabella Christian College in Canberra four years ago – yet handed it $927,370 this month.

In a statement, the department said it had switched to making monthly payments to the school – instead of payments three times a year – in 2022.

“Schools can have their payments made monthly when there are concerns about governance and or financial management,’’ it said.

“The department has written to the board of Brindabella Christian College emphasising its obligations to meet staff entitlements as a priority.’’

The Independent Education Union lodged a complaint with the Fair Work Ombudsman on Wednesday, allegedly the school had failed to pay teachers, leaving them “distressed about paying bills, rent and mortgages’’.

The Australian Taxation Office launched legal action in the Federal Court last week over an $8m tax debt.

Education Department deputy director in charge of schools Meg Brighton told a Senate estimates hearing in Canberra on Thursday the department had written to the school on Monday after learning about the wage dispute.

“We wrote to the school about the non-payment of wages and … reminded (them) their obligation was to ensure Australian government funding was spent … not on litigation matters and they should be prioritising payment of wages,’’ she said.

Ms Brighton said the federal Education Department had been paying the school $10m a year.

Greens education spokeswoman Penny Allman-Payne asked if the department “considers it a risk that it has a lack of oversight over private schools”.

“This is not the first time we’ve seen a school receiving significant amounts of public money not meeting its obligations,’’ she said.

Ms Brighton said the department had made a decision in 2021 about the school’s “fitness to receive government funding’’, which was appealed through the Administrative Appeals Tribunal.

“In 2023, the AAT imposed a large range of conditions on the school,’’ she said.

“Our compliance action with the school has been going on for quite some time.

“There have been concerns raised about … the school’s ability to meet its obligations.’’

Independent senator for the ACT David Pocock said he had spoken to parents who were concerned about the “glacial pace at which things move forward’’.

“What’s the holdup here?’’ he said. “Do you have any concerns about how funds provided by the taxpayer have been spent by the school given the multimillion-­dollar tax debt the ATO alleges has been accrued, and the apparent admission from the board chair in correspondence to staff and parents … that they are approximately $1m short for the month of February?’’

Ms Brighton replied: “We have compliance action afoot. We have written to the board to remind them commonwealth recurrent funding can’t be used for litigation, We are concerned that they are reporting not being able to meet their obligations.

“We have consistently expressed a concern about the entity, particularly about govern­ance, matters of fit and proper persons and their failure to meet their reporting obligations to us.’’

The college charges its 1200 students up to $15,400 per year in tuition fees.

In an unrelated question, Senator Allman-Payne said she was “continuing to hear from private school parents about bullying, a lack of transparency and the difficulty of withdrawing their students when they’re getting slugged with fees’’.

She asked the department if it had a policy to stop private schools “penalising parents with fees’’ when they pull out of a school over bullying.

Ms Brighton said the federal government had announced a review into schools’ policies and systems to deal with bullying, which “has significant impacts on students and their families’’.

Senator Allman-Payne said the government was “handing over extraordinary amounts of money to private institutions’’ and should hold them to account for student safety.

“I think it’s fair to say the accountability and standards that public schools are held to are much higher in terms of bullying and harassment,’’ she said.

“Is the government of the view that if you’re receiving public money you should be held to the same stringent standards public schools are expected to meet in terms of protecting staff and students?’’

Assistant Education Minister Anthony Chisholm said private schools had a “different operating environment’’ but that did not mean they could lower their standards.

Senator Allman-Payne said private school fees had risen at double the rate of inflation over the past 20 years, with year 12 fees now averaging $21,000 in Victoria and $16,000 in NSW.

“The highest-fee private schools are now charging over $50,000 a year,’’ she said.

“The Australian government continues to give $51m per day to private schools. Do you think that taxpayers or indeed parents of private school kids are getting a fair deal?’’

Senator Chisholm said “it would be up to those individual schools to justify those fees to their parents’’.

“Some parents may want to send their children to a private school, that is absolutely their right, and it’s important that government respects that and funds those schools appropriately,’’ he said.