Coalition joins Labor's Gonski 'unity ticket'

THE Coalition has sought to reset the education debate for the looming federal election and outflank Labor.

Tony Abbott

THE Coalition has sought to reset the education debate for the looming federal election and outflank Labor by promising the same increase in school funding over the next four years without requiring state governments to increase their own budgets.

The announcement yesterday by Tony Abbott and education spokesman Christopher Pyne of a "unity ticket" on school funding with Kevin Rudd overturns their previous policy positions on Labor's funding reforms. Since the release of the Gonski report last year, the Coalition has been opposed to the new funding model. Last week, the Opposition Leader said an Abbott government would keep it for one year.

The Coalition move hands a reprieve to the states yet to adopt the reforms, removing the "sign up or lose it" condition to access an extra $10 billion of commonwealth money, while addressing one of its main concerns of Canberra's interference in the running of state schools. But the policy will deliver less money than Labor's Better Schools Plan, promising extra funding only for four years not six years as under Labor, and delivering only the federal share of the increased amounts not the state or territory contributions.

Under Labor's plans, the federal government contributes $2 for every dollar increase in state and territory school funding, but a Coalition government would not require the states to contribute anything extra to receive the boost in federal funding.

Mr Abbott said the deals signed by the governments in NSW, South Australia, Tasmania and the ACT would be honoured by a federal Coalition government, and it would match the offers made to the remaining states and the Northern Territory.

"There is no difference between Kevin Rudd and myself when it comes to school funding," the Opposition Leader said at an independent school in Melbourne.

"We will honour the agreements that Labor has entered into. We will match the offers that Labor has made. We will make sure that no school is worse off.

"The essential difference between Labor and the Coalition going into the coming election is not over funding, it's over the amount of control that the commonwealth government should have. Under the Coalition, you'll get the funding but you won't get the strings attached."

One of the big sticking points in negotiations has been the powers granted to the federal government in the Australian Education Act, passed this year, that the hold-out states and Catholic schools argue give the federal education minister the power to set funding levels in individual schools.

Mr Pyne said a Coalition government would amend the offending clauses to remove the "central control and command features from Canberra that the Labor Party's model envisages".

"The real difference is going to be that the Coalition recognises that we don't own any schools, we don't run any schools, whether they're non-government or government," he said.

Labor's funding reforms are tied to an overhaul of the system for allocating money to schools, funding them on the characteristics of their students rather than the number enrolled as under the existing system.

All Catholic and independent schools come under Labor's new funding model, which is in the legislation, but government schools in non-participating states will continue to be funded under the existing system and miss out on the extra money and targeted funding, which has been rolled into the new model.

The Coalition will pay the extra money to non-participating states under the existing system as targeted funding and develop a new national funding model that reflects the recommendations of the Gonski review.

Negotiations on the reforms between the federal government and Victoria and Queensland were continuing yesterday, with Education Minister Bill Shorten still hopeful of finalising a deal with the Napthine government this weekend.

"I've got no doubt (that) what spooked the Coalition into running around and putting lipstick on their inadequate policies is that even their own political parties in their states are saying, they've said to the Coalition, 'Get out of the way will you, we need to do business, we need to look after our schoolkids'," Mr Shorten said.

Premier Denis Napthine, who has demanded legislative change preventing interference as a condition of the state signing up, yesterday welcomed the Coalition's recognition that federal control of state schools "would be a massive step backwards for our education system".

"We are also pleased with Mr Abbott's commitment of additional education funding that is not conditional upon legislation that threatens Victorian school autonomy," Dr Napthine said.

Queensland Education Minister John-Paul Langbroek said the Coalition's offer to guarantee funding without any strings attached and the acknowledgement of the state's existing funding commitment were refreshing.

NSW was the first and still the only non-Labor government to sign up, and negotiated a no-disadvantage clause to ensure it was not penalised for making an early deal, which could be triggered under the Coalition's policy.

A spokesman for NSW Education Minister Adrian Piccoli said the government welcomed the federal Coalition's commitment to honour its funding agreement, providing certainty for Catholic, independent and government schools for the next four years.

Angelo Gavrielatos, the federal president of the Australian Education Union, which represents government school teachers and principals, said the policy effectively cut at least $7bn off the plan outlined by Labor.

"This is more about election policy than education policy," he said. "Today's statement by Tony Abbott is an attempt to neutralise the pressure ... brought to bear on the Coalition due to its opposition to school funding reform."

Additional reporting: Pia Akerman