Education Minister Simon Birmingham apologises to Catholics for ‘Judas’ comment

Simon Birmingham offers a qualified apology, but says Bill Shorten is “just trying to pick winners and buy votes”.

Minister for Education Simon Birmingham during Senate Question Time. Picture: AAP

Education Minister Simon Birmingham has offered a qualified apology to Victorian Catholic Education Office executive director Stephen Elder, after suggesting Mr Elder could be “bought by a few pieces of silver”.

Senator Birmingham made the reference to the Biblical figure of Judas on Monday, after being asked whether the Victorian branch of the Catholic Education Office was being less constructive than those in other states.

The comments came in response to news Opposition Leader Bill Shorten had hailed the Catholic Education Office’s campaign in the Melbourne seat of Batman, which included robocalls to 30,000 households, as a key factor in Labor’s win in Saturday’s by-election.

Today Senator Birmingham said “no offence was meant” by his comments.

“As far as I’m aware — indeed, from Mr Elder’s own statements — none was taken,” he told Sky News.

“If it was, I’m sorry. However, I continue to work very constructively with anybody who wants to sit down and work through the issues with us.

“We continue to meet with some regularity with officials right across Catholic education, and there are more of those meetings in coming days.”

Senator Birmingham said he was committed to working with the Catholic, state and independent school systems but would take a “principled approach”, accusing Mr Shorten of “backdoor politicking”.

Earlier this month, Mr Shorten wrote to Australian Catholic Bishops Conference chairman Denis Hart, pledging to offer Catholic schools more than $250 million more than the government is offering in the first two years of office.

“Where are the letters to the eight state and territory ministers around the country?” Senator Birmingham said.

“Where are the letters to the other independent and non-government school systems around the country? None of those exist, which shows very much that Mr Shorten’s approach has no principle, has no consistency, and is just trying to pick winners and buy votes.”

Enrolments in low-fee Catholic schools have fallen in one of the country’s largest dioceses by as much as 23 per cent this year, as has been highlighted in a letter sent to federal and state MPs last week by the Catholic Schools Office in the Broken Bay diocese, which covers much of Sydney’s northern suburbs and the NSW central coast.

In the letter, revealed in today’s Australian, the Catholic sector argues that concerns over the Turnbull government’s “Gonski 2.0” funding scheme have led to the fall in enrolments.

Senator Birmingham said school enrolments around the country “move around quite a bit”.

“They’ve certainly had several years, in some cases, of declines in their school enrolments,” he said.

“This is not a new thing. It would be driven, I’m sure, by local factors, and indeed, the letter that’s quoted today does indeed acknowledge that there are many factors at play.”

The government maintains that all school sectors will be better off under its needs-based funding scheme, with no “special deals” for any particular sector.

Labor has sought to frame the policy as a $17bn cut over ten years compared with the amount Julia Gillard pledged in her Gonski package in 2012, which the opposition has promised to deliver in full if elected.

Senator Birmingham argued schools across all sectors would be $25.3bn better off over 10 years than they would have been under Tony Abbott, who axed the Gonksi plan, and Catholic schools would be $3.9bn better off.

“There’s almost $4 billion extra over the next 10 years going into Catholic education around Australia,” he said.

Senator Birmingham said a review of the methodology but not the model used to determine SES-based funding was due to be completed by the independent National Schools Resourcing Board by June.

“We heard last year, concerns about the data and the methodology that underpins the SES,” he said.

“That’s why we did two things: we put in some interim funding for this year to make sure that there was additional dollars while we reviewed the SES formula, and we instigated this independent board and this review to do so.

“I’ve said publicly, time and time again: we’ll get that review’s findings. I’m confident we will act on them, and we will continue discussions with the sector to make sure that every body — not just the Catholic school community, but also the whole non-government school community — has confidence in the way the SES methodology works.”

Robocall ‘informing parents’

Mr Elder said his robocall campaign was aimed at informing parents.

“This government spends tens of millions of dollars of taxpayers’ funds telling them that their policy is good,” he told Sky News.

“In my view any government that spends tens of millions of dollars telling people that their policy is good actually recognises that it’s failed, and surely I’m permitted to inform my parents that this is a dud policy that is taking money off their schools and putting many Catholic schools across this country in jeopardy of survival.”

‘School choice is being diminished’

NSW Catholic Schools CEO Dallas McInerney said parents who were leaving the Catholic sector were making “rational decisions” that “school choice is being diminished in Australia” through the Turnbull government’s funding policy.

Mr McInerney said the trend of falling enrolments was “unambiguous”.

“The data is in, thanks to the census of student populations conducted at the beginning of the year, and what those figures show is that there is a precipitous fall in student numbers in our schools, not only in Broken Bay, where the story in The Australian covers today, but it’s being experienced in other places across New South Wales, so this is a real concern for us,” he told Sky News.

“It should be a concern for the whole education sector, because if there is leakage out of our sector, it is slack that needs to be taken up by mainly the government public school sector where they have the capacity, unexpected of these kids landing on their doorstep is a huge challenge, so we think if school choice, delivered by way of a fairer funding deal, is put back in place all of these issues could be resolved.”

Asked whether it was appropriate for Mr Elder’s robocalls in Batman to claim that Malcolm Turnbull has cut funding to Catholic schools when they will receive an extra $3.9 billion over the next ten years, Mr McInerney said it was a question for Mr Elder.

“We didn’t run the robocalls. That was a unique feature in Victoria when they had the Batman by-election over the weekend.

“The concern with the Catholic sector across Australia is around the funding deal which was done by Canberra last year and the challenges it presents to us.

“We are acutely and unashamedly focusing on the policy outcomes for our sector, and we will not take a backward step in that, no matter the challenges or the questions we get, we do have a right on behalf of our parents and the sector to put before our stakeholders what we see to be the case for and against the policies which are being delivered for us.”

Asked whether it was reasonable to be comparing the Turnbull government’s funding levels with those offered by Julia Gillard in 2012, despite Tony Abbott’s cuts in the meantime, Mr McInerney said the sector had based its planning on the original Gonski policy.

“What the current Coalition policy is, is less than what we had baked in and done forward planning on the basis of what the Gillard government had said would be delivered over the forward years,” he said.

“We went away and structured our schools, our budgets and our forward planning accordingly, and there was a change in government.

“These things happen. What you can’t argue against is what was on the table from under the previous government to what’s on the table with this government is different, and this government is offering less.”

Mr McInerney said he was hopeful that the National Schools Resourcing Board’s SES funding review would result in fairer methodology for Catholic school parents.

Labor ‘concerned about cuts across all sectors’

Labor senator Jenny McAllister denied her party had been associating itself with a scare campaign from the Catholic sector.

“We’re associating ourselves with the parents of children and teachers and educators across all sectors,” she told Sky News.

“Our concern is not particularly to be champions for one sector or another. Our concern is to deal with the fact that over 10 years there’s $17 billion less in the system, in the education system, than there would have been under the approach that we took, and as you know we’ve committed to putting that money back, we’ve budgeted for that should we return to government.

“Our view is that the system needs more resources. Those resources need to be directed towards children who are from low income families or who are otherwise doing it tough, kids with distinct needs, and we’re really concerned that so much money has been taken out of the sector.”