Victoria set for schools showdown

Daniel Andrews has accused the Morrison government of “short-changing” Victorian state school students.

Victorian Education Minister James Merlino, left, and Premier Daniel Andrews. Picture: AAP

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has accused the Morrison government of “short-changing” Victorian state school students, setting the scene for a showdown over education and infrastructure funding at COAG meetings in Adelaide later this week.

Mr Andrews’s call for more money from the Morrison government’s Gonski 2.0 scheme comes after federal Education Minister Dan Tehan refused to accept demands from Victoria and fellow Labor state Queensland to boost already record funding.

“We have an offer from the commonwealth government which is a completely unacceptable offer, a multi-year deal that sees Catholic and independent schools funded at 100 per cent, and government funded at just 95 per cent,” Mr Andrews said.

“The Morrison minority government needs to understand that Victorians will not settle for schools being underfunded. Parents across the state will not settle for their kids being short-changed.

“That’s the key message to the Morrison minority government today. You’ve got to fund education properly. Don’t think Victoria’s going to be signing up to any dud multi-year deal that short-changes our kids. We just won’t do it.”

Mr Andrews cited his November 24 election win, hailing Victoria as the “education state”.

“Education was a very big part of the decision that Victorians made at the state election only a couple of weeks ago,” he said.

Victorian Education minister James Merlino accused the federal government of “putting a gun” to the Andrews government’s head and threatening to withdraw funding from non-government schools.

“The negotiating tactic from the federal government for many months has been to put a deal on the table that is completely unfair, say we need to sign it immediately, and put a gun to our head and threaten non-government schools with funding,” Mr Merlino said.

“We’re not going to sign up to a dud deal. We’ve got a federal election on the horizon, within six months, and it may come much earlier than that, and the difference between what a Shorten federal Labor government will deliver for Victorian schools, and what is on the table right now from the Morrison minority government is a massive difference.”

Mr Merlino said the deal currently on offer would cost Victorian government schools $800m over the first three years.

“That’s the equivalent of around 2000 additional teachers in our schools,” he said.

“We’ll sign up to an agreement, but it’s got to be a fair agreement, and there is nothing fair, there is nothing logical, about a proposal from the Morrison minority government where a government school in Victoria gets 95 per cent of the student resource standard, and non-government schools get to 100 per cent and beyond.”

Health, education, infrastructure funding ‘must be part’ of COAG population chat

Mr Andrews urged the Morrison government to consider school hospital and infrastructure funding in the planned COAG discussion on population growth.

“With the greatest of respect to the PM, you cannot have a sensible discussion about the rate at which Australia is growing without talking about funding hospitals properly, funding schools properly, and funding the infrastructure we need today and into the future properly,” he said.

“Even today, despite our record investment in road and rail, hospitals and schools, the building program, that big build that we’re so proud of and that was so overwhelmingly endorsed by the Victorian community just a few weeks ago, only 10 per cent of the funding required to deliver that task comes from Canberra.”

Mr Andrews also called for the Morrison government to release $3bn previously set aside for the East West Link road project first proposed by the Napthine government in 2014, saying the proposal had been rejected at the last two state elections and highlighting Labor gains in eastern suburbs seats which would have benefited from the road.

“That money could be put to much better use. It could be put towards infrastructure that creates jobs and sets us up for the future,” Mr Andrews said.

“The East-West Link has been rejected not once, but twice, and Burwood, Box Hill, Mt Waverley, Bayswater, they’re all in the east of the city.

“They’ve been pretty clear on what their priorities are: the North East Link.

“I like building things. That’s what I do. That’s what we do. Let’s get on and do that together. “Having $3bn locked away, unable to create jobs and build the infrastructure we need, that doesn’t make any sense at all.

“That’d be a really good down payment on properly funding infrastructure across Victoria where we are the fastest-growing city, the fastest-growing state, 25 per cent of the nation, we get 10 per cent of help, 10 per cent of funding from the commonwealth government.”

Victoria’s economic growth leading the nation

Mr Andrews’s calls come as a 2018-19 Victorian budget update shows the best economic growth of any state in Australia and unemployment at a seven-year low.

Economic growth of 3.5 per cent in 2017-18 was well above national growth of 2.8 per cent.

Of the 389,000 new jobs created, almost three quarters were full time.

Regional unemployment hit a record low of 4.4 per cent.

Treasurer Tim Pallas highlighted budget surpluses averaging $2.2bn over the past four years, with the Andrews government’s infrastructure investment projected to reach $13.4bn and average $10.6bn a year over the budget and forward estimates — more than double the average of $4.9 billion a year from 2005-06 to 2014-15.