Catholic backlash over link to Judas

The Catholic education sector has accused Simon Birmingham of discrimination after he used an offensive reference to Judas.

Simon Birmingham.

The Catholic education sector has accused Simon Birmingham of discrimination after the Education Minister used an offensive reference to Judas in response to the church’s campaign against the government’s school funding package.

Several of Senator Birmingham’s Catholic colleagues were also privately seething yesterday after he accused the Victorian branch of Catholic Education of being “bought by a few pieces of silver” following its campaign to back Labor at Saturday’s Batman by-election.

The executive director of Catholic Education Melbourne, Stephen Elder, said Senator Birmingham had shown a lack of “respect” while “sneering” at parents of Catholic students.

Senator Birmingham’s comments refer to Judas, an apostle who was paid 30 pieces of silver to betray Jesus.

“I’m not offended Simon Birmingham paraphrased scripture today. Perhaps it means he’s ­beginning to see the light and ­realising his policies are discriminatory,” Mr Elder said.

“(The minister) sneeringly said of the CECV (Catholic Education Commission of Victoria) while discussing Labor education policy ‘there’s always somebody who can be bought by a few pieces of silver’.

“What the minister — with his obsessive rhetoric about ­special deals — appears to have ­ignored is that Labor leader Bill Shorten’s letter spelling out his funding commitments from less than a fortnight ago says ‘we will at least restore every dollar of the $17 billion cut from schools by the Turnbull government’.”

A senior colleague of Senator Birmingham said his comment was “disgraceful”. “It is a highly ­offensive remark,” the colleague said.

Asked whether the Victorian branch of Catholic Education had been constructive, Senator Birmingham said “there’s always somebody who can be bought by a few pieces of silver, but ultimately we’re going to get a solution here in terms of ensuring that we have school funding that is principled, needs-based and built on formulas that are robust and data that is proven”.

He later told The Australian he was simply making a point about co-operation with his comments on the Victorian branch of Catholic Education.

“I had just commented on how constructive the engagement with Catholic Education at the national level was, and ­indeed across pretty much every state, and I am very pleased with those productive engagements,” he said. “Of course, you can’t please everybody.”

The Australian understands an independent review into the way socio-economic status scores are calculated for schools funding is likely to recommend using individual household wealth to assess need, with a ­government source saying he would be “surprised” if the panel found otherwise.

The National Schools Resourcing Board, set up by Senator ­Birmingham, is on track to report in June and will tackle one of the key arguments put forward by the Catholic education sector about the government’s school funding package: that the formula hurts low-fee Catholic schools by mistakenly assuming they have students from wealthier ­families. The independent review could recommend defining need based on individual household data combined with other factors, rather than the current model that uses clusters of 400 households to average wealth at the below-suburb level.

Such a formula would improve funding levels for many Catholic schools, though not dramatically.

Malcolm Turnbull would not comment on Senator Birmingham’s remarks or whether he thought them appropriate. Tony Abbott called on Senator Birmingham to “reconsider elements” of the policy in the wake of Labor’s successful bid to win the seat of Batman, which included a one-off promise to provide an extra $250 million to Catholic schools over two years if Labor forms government. Under Senator Birmingham’s plan, Catholic schools receive an extra $100m a year.

“This is a very interesting ­development. The Catholic school authority certainly took a very, very strong stance against the Greens in Batman and, yes, Bill Shorten has made some encouraging noises,” Mr Abbott told 2GB. “I’m not sure how much the Catholic school people ought to trust Bill Shorten, but I certainly think that if the government was smart we would have a look at our existing policy. The point that I made at the time of the new policy was that it’s going to make low-fee schools in middle-class suburbs ­almost impossible to run.”

Senator Birmingham said the government had provided interim funding to schools “equivalent to the old system weighted average” while the review into methodology was under way. He said Mr Shorten’s offering to the Catholic sector was for two years and guaranteed nothing in the years ahead.

“We remain committed to funding based on principle, not politicking, but we stand by the proper process of using the ­independent board to review the SES methodology and are grateful the National Catholic Education Commission has ­engaged productively in that process,” he said. “This thorough ­review of the SES offers the potential of an enduring and principled ­solution that is true to principles of needs-based schools funding.”

Additional reporting: Rachel Baxendale