Coronavirus: ‘frustrated’ Dan Tehan withdraws Daniel Andrews criticism over return to school

The federal Education Minister says he overstepped the mark in accusing the Victorian Premier of a ‘failure of leadership’.

The Morrison government will ramp up pressure on schools in ­regional and remote Australia to be the “first to reopen” due to low rates of coronavirus, amid a deepening split with Victoria over when to get children back in classrooms.

A frustrated Education Minister Dan Tehan was forced to ­retract an extraordinary attack against Daniel Andrews on Sunday after he accused the Victorian Premier of showing a “failure of leadership” by not having a plan to reopen schools in term two.

While Mr Tehan lashed Mr Andrews for “jeopardising the ­national consensus” on restarting classroom learning, the federal government’s attention will turn to country schools on Monday.

Regional Education Minister Andrew Gee declared there was no reason schools in remote and regional communities could not safely reopen — while adhering to expert medical advice and social distancing rules — so that vulnerable students were not left behind.

“With country parts of Australia generally having fewer confirmed cases of COVID-19, schools in these areas should be the first to reopen,” Mr Gee said.

“We have research strongly indicating almost one in two Aussie kids fall into the vulnerable category with online learning, and that it doesn’t work for them long-term.”

Mr Tehan implored parents to take advice from Australia’s panel of medical experts, despite Scott Morrison saying last month that parents should be guided by premiers’ advice. The medical panel has consistently advised the government it was safe to keep schools open.

Mr Tehan questioned why Mr Andrews was “taking a sledgehammer” to his school system when other states had not.

Children in NSW will begin a staggered return to classes next week and Mr Tehan said Queensland had a plan to reopen its schools by the end of the month. He said there had been a 70 per cent attendance rate at schools in Western Australia, South Australia and the Northern Territory during the pandemic.

“This is a failure of leadership by Dan Andrews, let’s be clear about that. And you know where the impact is being felt? On the most vulnerable children, on those children from low socio-economic backgrounds. Indigenous children, rural and remote students. Students with a disability,” Mr Tehan told the ABC’s Insiders.

Government sources said the Prime Minister had not consented to the minister’s remarks. Hours later, Mr Tehan conceded he had gone too far because he was concerned Australia’s most vulnerable children would suffer the most from remote learning.

“It was those examples I was thinking of this morning during my interview on Insiders when I expressed my personal frustration that more schools weren’t starting more in-class learning in my home state (of Victoria),” he said.

Victorian Health Minister Jenny Mikakos announced on Sunday a school in Melbourne’s north had closed after a teacher tested positive. “Victorians understand who’s been leading the effort in Victoria to keep them safe, to suppress the number … of coronavirus cases that we have been seeing in Victoria and that’s certainly not been Dan Tehan,” she said.

Opposition education spokeswoman Tanya Plibersek hit out at Mr Tehan for “trying to bully and harass state education ministers and state governments” while deputy Labor leader Richard Marles, a senior Victorian MP, said the Morrison government had issued confusing messages on schools.

Victorian Health Minister Jenny Mikakos. Picture: AAP