Christopher Pyne dumps school funding promise

EDUCATION Minister Christopher Pyne has walked away from a pre-election pledge to match promised Labor funding for every school.

EDUCATION Minister Christopher Pyne has walked away from a pre-election pledge to match promised Labor funding for every school.

Mr Pyne said the Coalition would match the overall “funding envelope” promised by Labor, but distribution of the funds could change.

He said the Gonski school funding model would continue in 2014, so as not to disrupt the school year, but he would draw up a new funding system in time for the first day of school in 2015, based on the Howard government's old socio-economic status model.

Just over a week before the September election, Mr Pyne promised: “You can vote Liberal or Labor and you'll get exactly the same amount of funding for your school.”

Today, he conceded that might not be the case.

“We will have exactly the same funding envelope available, and we will work through with the states and territories to ensure that is equitably distributed,” he said.

Mr Pyne, who claimed to be on a “unity ticket” with Labor on school funding before the election, today said the Gonski model was a “shambles” and “unimplementable”.

“The change of government means that the new government will implement its policies in the future,” he said.

“I know that Labor wanted to try and tie the Coalition to the future for at least past two elections. But the way our system works is that no government can bind any future government.

“What one government does another government can undo.”

He said he did not support the “central command and control features” of the Gonski model, and it should come as no surprise to people that the Coalition was pursuing a deregulatory agenda.

He said it would be “irresponsible” to try and implement a model that could not be implemented.

Mr Pyne also accused Opposition Leader Bill Shorten of ripping $1.2 billion from school funding for Queensland, Western Australia and the Northern Territory in one of his final acts as education minister.

He said Mr Shorten had taken away funding earmarked for states that hadn't signed so-called Gonski funding deals.

In the economic statement released in August by the Rudd government on the eve of the election campaign, the treatment of payments for non-participating states and territories was separated from the government's Gonski funding and listed as “nfp” (not for publication).

The pre-election economic and fiscal outlook detailed the funding as $1.2bn over the forward estimates including $118.2m in 2013-14, $222.9m in 2014-15, $352 in 2015-16 and $510.2m in 2016-17.

As Mr Pyne sought to turn the focus against Labor, Tasmania and Queensland joined NSW, Victoria and the ACT in demanding the Coalition government honour Gonski deals made before the election.

Tasmanian Premier Lara Giddings condemned as a “cynical twist” Mr Pyne's claim the deal with Tasmania was non-binding.

“We have a heads of agreement that has been signed,” Ms Giddings told reporters in Hobart.

“That (was) the deal when I shook the hand of the prime minister of this nation and made that agreement.”

Ms Giddings said the Abbott government was signalling it would renege on its election commitment.

“They'd better not try to break this election promise to the Tasmanian people because there are parents out there who voted for Tony Abbott ... on the basis that they would continue the program,” Ms Giddings said.

Queensland Treasurer Tim Nicholls said he wanted his state's share of the Gonski funding pool.

“It's about $1.9 billion over the forward forecasts and we're continuing to negotiate with them about the best way to get that money and get it into the schools,” Mr Nicholls told ABC radio.

“What we really want to talk about now is making sure we can get as much of that money into the schools and not into administration.”

NSW Premier Barry O'Farrell also hit out at Mr Pyne's handling of the issue, saying he is acting like someone in opposition.

“In all my years in politics I have worked out that it is best to have respectful discussions and consultation in private, not through the media,” Mr O'Farrell told reporters.

“Secondly, when you move into government you have to stop behaving like an opposition.

“This issue has escalated because of the poor way in which it has been handled and that is not acceptable when we are talking about the education of future generations of Australians.”

Former federal independent MP Tony Windsor says the Coalition's apparent backflip is “Tony Abbott's carbon tax moment”.

He said Mr Pyne was too focused on trying to rebrand bipartisan policy as Liberal policy.

“I get along with Christopher Pyne ... but he enjoys the theatre of politics rather than the action of policy,” he said.

Additional reporting; AAP