Pyne to find extra $1.2bn for state schools in Queensland, WA and NT

THE Abbott government will have to find an extra $1.2 billion for government schools in Queensland, WA and the NT.

Christopher Pyne

THE Abbott government will have to find an extra $1.2 billion over the next four years for government schools in Queensland, Western Australia and the Northern Territory to meet its election commitment of matching Labor's funding levels.

The money was removed from the budget by Labor in the Pre-Election Economic and Fiscal Outlook, released during the campaign when the three states refused to adopt Julia Gillard's funding model based on the Gonski reforms.

Under Labor's policy, government schools in the hold-out states were to be funded under current arrangements, which did not include the additional Gonski monies.

Education Minister Christopher Pyne previously said the Coalition would "match exactly (Labor's) funding envelope" over four years and would fund states and territories the same way as Labor.

But under questioning in Senate estimates hearings yesterday, federal education department officials said the Abbott government would distribute the extra money to the three hold-out states.

Labor senator Deborah O'Neill and Greens senator Penny Wright said there was no money in the budget next year for funding increases for those states, and when asked where the extra $1.2bn was coming from, department secretary Lisa Paul said: "That's a matter for this government".

"This government's commitment is clear and it goes into 2014 with the same funding levels irrespective of whether states signed a deal with the Rudd government," she said.

"Funding clearly will be a matter for this government to work through."

Mr Pyne later reitereated that the Coalition government "will match dollar for dollar funding" committed by Labor, but he failed to specify whether that is the level before or after the election budget revision.

The department also revealed that about 24 school building projects funded under Labor's Building the Education Revolution were yet to be completed, two years after the program officially ended.

Department officials told the estimates committee that of the $16.2bn budgeted for the BER, only $15.8bn had been spent by September 14 this year and a further $34 million was committed to projects but not yet spent.

Most of the projects still under construction are special schools for students with disabilities in NSW.

The BER was rolled out by Labor in response to the global financial crisis in 2007 and wound up in 2011 but was widely criticised for inflated costs and inefficient implementation by federal and state governments, particularly in NSW and Victoria.