Campbell Newman joins Gonski revolt as Queensland threatens June deadline

CAMPBELL Newman has virtually ruled out the Queensland government's agreement to the Gonski school funding reforms by the PM's deadline of June 30.

Julia Gillard

CAMPBELL Newman has virtually ruled out the Queensland government's agreement to the Gonski school funding reforms by Julia Gillard's deadline of June 30 and warned that agreement at any time is "impossible" without substantial changes.

The Queensland Liberal National Party Premier has told the Prime Minister she misunderstands state funding arrangements and is making misleading public statements about the education funding changes.

In a scarifyingly critical letter to Ms Gillard on Friday, obtained by The Australian, Mr Newman said officials in her department and in Treasury were "intransigent", failing to negotiate constructively and were unable to set out base education funding for the 2014 education year.

Mr Newman told Ms Gillard that because of funding uncertainty and the federal government's "lack of understanding", it was "increasingly unlikely that a mutually acceptable agreement can be reached by the 30 June 2013 deadline". He also wrote that because of the intransigence of the federal government, "even if agreement could be reached on the starting point, the flow-on effects would require substantial revision of your funding offer".

"Unless that is in scope, it is impossible to see how we might reach agreement," he wrote.

Mr Newman's declaration is the latest blow to the Gillard government's attempts to get most states and territories to agree to its $14.5 billion-a-year National Plan for School Improvement and have it legislated before parliament rises at the end of the month for the election.

The Prime Minister's office last night accused Mr Newman of "misrepresenting" what the federal government had on offer and of having no credibility.

A spokesman for Ms Gillard said there was $2.2 million in extra funding "on the table" for the average school in Queensland over the next six years.

"Premier Newman and his government simply have no credibility, given the severe cuts they have imposed on services across Queensland," the spokesman said.

He said Mr Newman should engage constructively to give every Australian student a better life.

The Queensland government's angry response to the latest round of federal government briefings on the Gonski education draft legislation is a setback to Ms Gillard's political and reform campaign and comes after the Victorian government described the negotiations last week as a farce and puerile.

Even the South Australian Labor government has warned independent schools there are concerns about when the funding will be delivered.

Various Catholic education commissions and some independent school groups have also voiced concerns about the federal government's negotiations, "imprecise" details and uncertainty about funding for schools from next January.

Ms Gillard is personally intervening in the process to get state and non-government school sector agreement to the deal for her national school plan, urging principals to pressure state governments to agree, and offering extra funding to specific groups.

The O'Farrell Liberal government has agreed to Ms Gillard's plan, which gives NSW $5.1bn extra, as has the ACT, which got an extra $190 million from the Prime Minister last week.

NSW independent schools also supported the changes after getting $73m extra.

There are still deep concerns within the non-government school sector that individual schools will not know what funding they will have next year and that there will be cuts to non-government schools despite government reassurances.

Expressing Queensland's "serious concerns", Mr Newman said there had not been any genuine negotiation and the state government only got responses to questions it asked about "statements in the media" from the Prime Minister, who had a "misunderstanding" of the level of her advisers' engagement.

Queensland government calculations also challenge Ms Gillard's claims that the funding for the Gonski reforms are a "two-for-one" offer, with the suggestion that the Queensland contribution for 2014-19 would be $3.4bn and the federal government's contribution would be $3.8bn.

Mr Newman not only criticises federal Labor's refusal to negotiate and questions its funding calculations but also queries the educational benefits of the Gonski reforms as well as the federal government's NAPLAN changes.

Mr Newman said that like NAPLAN, the school improvement scheme was "prescriptive and regimented" as well as "offering no clear educational benefits".

He said differences had to be made "in the classroom", not with the bureaucracy.