Queensland election: Steven Miles demands federal funding after free lunch cash splash
The Miles government has defended its $1.4bn free lunch policy while demanding Canberra comes up with more state school funding.
The Miles government has defended its $1.4bn free lunch policy while demanding the federal government stump up additional funding for state schools, which principals say they need urgently.
Queensland Association of State School Principals president Pat Murphy said the state’s education system was chronically underfunded, with the proposed policy likely to only help a small number of students.
“Queensland has been underfunded for 12 years, we would see that as a priority,” he said.
“We do see there is merit in students having a nutritious lunch every day, but principals observe that a majority of our students in primary schools actually come to school with a lunch prepared by their families at home.”
Following the cost-of-living announcement on Sunday, Queensland Premier Steven Miles demanded the commonwealth front up an extra $800m over the next five years for the education system as part of the Gonski funding package.
“We want to see the Australian government contribute their fair share,” he said.
“We think we can do both, but we also think (free lunch) is important to core education outcomes and there’s a lot of evidence that says that.”
Opposition leader David Crisafulli campaigned on the Sunshine Coast on Monday, stopping for a pie at a Noosaville bakery in the Labor-held electorate of Nicklin, after slamming Labor for borrowing to fund its free lunches policy.
“Queenslanders want to see borrowing to build things, but you don’t borrow to build burgers, that’s the difference,” he said.
“The impediment to signing that deal is not our contribution; it’s the Australian government’s contribution.”
Food programs already provide meals at hundreds of schools across the state, with an additional $10.7m committed by the government in May. P&Cs Qld said the funding would be better off distributed directly to parents to target things they need most.
State and federal governments have been arguing for over a year about who should pay for a 5 per cent shortfall in Gonski funding promised to public schools 10 years ago.
Federal Education Minister Jason Clare has offered to boost the commonwealth’s share of school funding to the states from 20 per cent to 22.5 per cent, at a cost of $16bn over 10 years.
Western Australia is the only state to have accepted, with Queensland and other states demanding the commonwealth increase its share to 25 per cent. The extra 2.5 per cent would equate to about $200m each year.
Queensland Education Minister Di Farmer said her state was in lock-step with Victoria, NSW and South Australia in its refusal to accept the commonwealth’s 22.5 per cent funding offer.
“We’re saying to the federal government, you need to stump up,” she said. “We are funding all of these other programs like this one (free lunch). Teachers will tell you that behaviour and managing kids’ needs in a classroom is becoming increasingly complex, and the plain, cold, hard facts are if a child has not got food in their belly, they can’t concentrate and if they can’t concentrate, they can’t learn.”
When the Greens moved a private members bill in 2021, then-education minister Grace Grace said the motion – at a cost of $374m assuming a 30 per cent take-up rate – was trying to “solve a problem that doesn’t exist”.
The sentiment was echoed Ms Farmer, who rubbished the plan as “irresponsible” and insisted it would not address the core issue of children going hungry.
Asked on Monday to explain her backflip, she said: “It would have been about $3 per meal for a child, which might get you instant noodles and an apple.”
Under Labor’s plan, it’s predicted 76 per cent of Queensland’s 326,000 primary school students will take up the free lunch offer either full-time or partially.
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