Labor's education agenda put on lay-by

Another of Labor’s key education policies has been cut to pay for the colossal waste and mismanagement that has plagued the education portfolio since the Rudd/Gillard Government took office, said Christopher Pyne Shadow Minister for Education.

Reward payments to primary and secondary schools under the Rewards for School improvement programme will be pushed back to 2015 which is a $153 million cut.

“The Rewards for School improvement policy was announced during the 2010 election campaign and now won’t begin until midway through a purely hypothetical third term of a Labor Government,” Mr Pyne said.

“This can be added to a $200 million cut to the teacher bonus scheme, pushed out to 2014 and a further $29 million cut to the Trades Training Centre programme on top of the cuts announced in the Budget, with building suspended for two years,” he said. 

“Labor’s Education agenda has been put on lay-by. What exactly will the Gillard Government deliver in the education portfolio during this term?

“The national curriculum won’t begin nationwide until 2014, the start dates of key policies have been pushed back beyond the next election and the computers in schools programme will miss its December 2011 deadline by hundreds of thousands of computers. 

“Labor waste is the reason for these cuts. Blow outs in the computers in schools programme and the Building the Education Revolution programme totaling more than $3 billion could have bolstered the budget bottom-line.

“Both blow-outs can be attributed to the Prime Minister during her disastrous stint in the education portfolio, so it should come as no surprise that blow-outs, bungles and broken promises continue to plague the Labor Government. 

November 29, 2011