Classroom warfare as both sides draw electoral battlelines

Labor will try to maximise pressure on the government by taking its $14 billion schools funding announcement on a roadshow.

Bill Shorten at Croydon Hills Primary School in Melbourne yesterday. Picture: AAP

Labor will attempt to maximise political pressure on the government by taking its $14 billion schools funding announcement on a roadshow across the country, as Scott Morrison says Aus­tralians will pay for the policy through higher taxes.

Setting education battlelines for the election, which is due by May, the Prime Minister said “Bill Shorten is going to tax you more” as the Opposition Leader urged the federal government not to “short-change” children in public education.

Labor says the government has “cut” $14bn from public schools over 10 years under its Gonski 2.0 package compared to what would have been funded under the ­Gillard government’s original Gonski proposal. “The Morrison government is all at sea when it comes to education funding,” Mr Shorten said. “They’ve done a patch-up deal for low-fee Catholic schools and independent schools because they were feeling political backlash. Well, they haven’t seen anything yet. How dare this government treat the parents who send their kids to public schools and the kids who go to public schools as second-class.”

Mr Morrison said the Coalition had committed more than $24bn in extra funding for schools and insisted his government knew “how to manage a budget”.

“What Bill Shorten has committed to is $14bn of higher taxes for Australian families … Every time you see Bill’s lips moving, promising to splash money around, understand you’re paying for it,” Mr Morrison said.

“They can promise to spend lots of it. But they can’t manage money. And at the end of the day, Australian families will always end up paying more under Labor.”

Opposition education spokeswoman Tanya Plibersek will be in Queensland today to spruik the schools funding policy after ­standing alongside Victorian Education Minister James Merlino yesterday to talk up an extra $804 million over three years for his state.

“We will be able to give parents a lot of good information about how much better off their school will be, how much better off their child will be, in coming weeks,” Ms Plibersek said.

“As for how the money will be used, well, you can see how we’ve used extra funding in the past. Schools have used that money to transform learning in their classrooms. In the early years of extra funding under Labor, we saw more one-on-one attention. We saw kids who are struggling get the help they needed to catch up.”

Labor says it will pay for the major spending commitment through its new taxes.

The Morrison government has offered Catholic and independent schools a $4.5bn peace package but its success is dependent on ­negotiations with the states.