Private school funding: Shorten a cynical bogeyman, Morrison says

Scott Morrison has accused Bill Shorten of playing politics over threatened cuts to wealthy private schools.

Federal Opposition Leader Bill Shorten is playing politics over private school funding, the Treasurer says.

Treasurer Scott Morrison has accused Bill Shorten of playing “cynical bogeyman politics” over threatened funding cuts to wealthy private schools, noting all Australians were entitled to receive benefits for their tax dollars.

Education Minister Simon Birmingham’s concession that some of the nation’s wealthiest private schools were “over-funded” and could lose money has ignited a fresh front in the decades-old ¬political firestorm over education spending.

As Labor recycled John Howard’s 2004 attack on Mark Latham’s discarded schools funding policy to accuse the Coalition of crafting a “secret hit list’’, the Independent Schools Council of Australia warned private schools were not an easy target and “there are over-funded schools in every sector’’.

Mr Morrison said the government would pursue a “fairer deal” for schools that would be “based on education need” rather than political expediency.

“Bill Shorten is doing what he always does. Bill Shorten’s agenda is to engage in cynical bogeyman politics on every single issue. He goes out there, puts the sheet over his head as the big ghost scary thing he does every day, and he tries to scare the Australian people every single day,” he told ABC radio, noting that government spending on schools was increasing overall.

“That’s not a positive plan for the economy, that’s not a positive plan for the country, that’s just Bill Shorten playing cynical bogeyman politics.”

Mr Morrison said every taxpayer was entitled to receive public benefits, including wealthier Australians.

“All Australians pay taxes and all Australians receive some sort of services for those taxes, and some receive more than others,” he said.

“Some people pay more tax than others, some people on net terms don’t pay any tax at all and there’s a growing group of those people in Australia today.”

The Treasurer’s critics note that poorer Australians contribute to public revenue through GST and other taxes, if not income tax.

Opposition education spokeswoman Tanya Plibersek yesterday demanded Senator Birmingham detail which schools would be in line for funding cuts.

“If he thinks that some schools are over-funded, the obvious question is, ‘which ones?’ Does he have a secret hit list?’’ Ms Plibersek said.

Senator Birmingham argues the Gonski needs-based funding model has been “corrupted” by a succession of side deals with the states and territories, resulting in vastly different funding levels for nearly identical schools depending on their location.