Doorstop
02 Sep 2012
Transcipt SUBJECTS: Changes to school funding
E&OE…………
Pyne: Well the Government has leaked out their most outlandish promise of all since the last election. And that is that we are expected to believe they have a response to the Gonski Review involving an improvement for all school students that begins in three elections from now. Now we couldn’t trust the Prime Minister to keep her promise not to introduce a carbon tax for one term and yet we are expected to believe that the Government has the answers to school funding in three elections from now, in 2020. Mr Garret has been out this morning completely incapable of answering any of the detail about how these promises are to be funded. Worse than that the Government has not been able to guarantee that no school will be worse off. We know from the Gonski Review, the modelling shows 3,200 schools are worse off as a consequence of the Gonski modelling. They have been unable to answer questions about indexation and how much schools can look forward to in terms of indexation over the next four years. So this is a Government that is again all promise and no delivery. In fact, the Prime Minister has broken yet another one of her own commitments. She said in 2011 that every time we announce something, we properly account for it and properly fund it. Well this promise is again all foam and no beer. There is no accounting for it. There is no funds for it. Parents are expected to believe the government on the “never never” well into the future. On the other hand, the Coalition has a policy of complete certainty. We will fund all schools in real terms, increase their funding in real terms at 6% indexation over the next four years. Under a Coalition government, no school can be worse off because every school will continue to receive the same quantum of funding plus indexation at 6% over the next four years. Every school , every system can look forward to accessing a capital infrastructure fund under a Coalition government for new schools and improving the existing schools. On the other hand, the government is promising more uncertainty, more promises, no delivery, no funding commitments, no indexation commitments, and quite frankly they are treating parents like mug punters if they think that parents will believe this. The government is yet to guarantee no school be worse off, parents of non-government schools can look forward to higher schools fees as the government takes funds away from non-government schools and delivers them to public schools and in the process makes more schools worse off than they are now.
Journalist: We haven’t seen the full release yet, are we jumping to conclusions a little too early?
Pyne: Well the government has leaked this report to this response to the Sunday papers today with a view to getting two days of good publicity out of it. Quite frankly I think parents will be waking up this morning reading their newspapers and wondering where is the money coming from and does Julia Gillard really expect us to believe they will deliver a promise that is three elections away. This policy announcement suggests that Labor will win the next three federal elections. Quite frankly now the Labor Party would be lucky to win the next federal election, let alone the next three federal elections. So, we’re not jumping the gun. The Government has had this report since last December. They haven’t released any modelling. They haven’t released any detail about funding. Parents should feel very short changed today by a Government that is long on promises and short on delivery.
Journalist: Do you admit there are some positives in it in terms of the benefits to those who are struggling?
Pyne: The current funding model is needs based. Schools that have high income parents receive a great deal less government funding than schools that have low income parents. It is a myth to suggest that somehow schools in disadvantaged areas or from disadvantaged backgrounds somehow receive the same as schools in high wealth areas. That is a nonsense. The current funding model is needs based. It is objectively based on objective data, the Australian Bureau of Statistics data. So, of course the Coalition supports funding schools that have greater needs at a higher level.
Journalist: What do you say is the best way to tackle educational disadvantage?
Pyne: Well the best way is to focus on what matters. And what matters is teacher quality, what matters is a robust curriculum and Principal autonomy. It is a myth in Australia that throwing more money at schools will solve every problem. In the last ten years we have spent 44% more on schools and we have gone backwards in terms of our school outcome. So the Coalition will focus on what matters: teacher quality, better training for teachers, more professional development for teachers, a stronger curriculum and giving Principals more power in their own school communities.
Journalist: Isn’t it about time more money was put into struggling public schools?
Pyne: Well, money has been put into struggling public schools for ten years. In fact spending has increased by 44%. In that time, while salaries have gone up, spending has gone up, infrastructure has been built, our outcomes have been going backwards. What that proves to me is that the focus of our education policies should be on teacher quality, on the curriculum and on principal autonomy. Throwing more money at schools is all very well but it needs to be properly spent. The government isn’t promising any more money, by the way – there is no funding commitment in this promise. This promise is yet again all promise and no delivery. The Prime Minister herself said that the Labor Party would always release properly funded policies and to be accounted for them. It is quite the opposite here. They are expecting people to believe a promise that does not get underway until 2020, in eight years. It is because the cupboard is bare, the government knows it and the parents know it. The Coalition is offering absolute certainty - $4.2 billion dollars of new funding over the next four years at 6% indexation rate.
ENDS