Sukkar: ‘No evidence’ Birmo’s anti-Catholic

Liberal frontbencher Michael Sukkar says a new method of calculating incomes will deliver a fairer school funding model.

Sukkar says he has seen “no evidence” that Birmingham is “anti-Catholic.” Picture AAP

Liberal frontbencher Michael Sukkar says he has seen “no evidence” that Education Minister Simon Birmingham is “anti-Catholic”, and believes a new method of calculating parental incomes will deliver a fairer funding model for all school sectors.

Mr Sukkar’s comments come after Senator Birmingham last week apologised to Victorian Catholic Education Office executive director Stephen Elder, after suggesting Mr Elder could be “bought by a few pieces of silver” in a reference to the Biblical figure of Judas.

Senator Birmingham had been responding to news of a campaign Mr Elder ran during the Batman by-election, making robocalls to 30,000 households urging them to vote for Labor.

Asked whether Senator Birmingham was anti-Catholic, Mr Sukkar said: “Of course not”.

“I don’t think so. I have got no evidence of that. None of my interactions have ever, being a practising Catholic myself, it’s never even been an issue that has entered my mind, and that’s someone who works pretty closely with him,” Mr Sukkar told Sky News.

The independent National Schools Resourcing Board is currently reviewing the methodology used to determine the socio-economic status of parents, upon which funding levels are based.

The board is due to deliver its findings in June.

Mr Sukkar said he was hopeful the new model would more accurately reflect parental income levels.

“For government funding where we’ve previously relied on quite broad information, probably out of necessity in the past, if you’re able to actually rely on more granular more specific information that’s going to assist in targeting funding with need, essentially, which is what Minister Birmingham’s really tried to do as the centrepiece of his policy, why wouldn’t you go down that path?” he said.

Former prime minister Tony Abbott was also asked about the debate over funding for Catholic schools today, and said he wanted to see low fee schools continue to operate in middle class areas.

“The point I’ve made all along is that we want a system that allows low fee private schools, Catholic schools, independent schools to flourish, and I certainly want low fee schools to continue to operate in middle class areas and this is an issue, but I understand the government is addressing it,” Mr Abbott said.

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

Labor has sought to frame the Turnbull government’s Gonski 2.0 policy as a $17bn cut to all sectors 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.

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