Doorstop - Parliament House

SUBJECTS: COAG; School Funding E&OE............................... Hon Christopher Pyne MP: Sorry to keep you waiting. Well, in spite of the Prime Ministers threats earlier this week to the Premiers she has failed to get an agreement today on school funding reform. This has been an incredible example of breathtaking incompetence on the part of Julia Gillard and Peter Garrett. They have had the Gonski Report since November 2011 and here we are in April 2013. And, the Premiers were ambushed on Sunday with a new school funding model. This followed Saturday’s extraordinary announcement of $2.8 billion worth of cuts to the higher education sector. On Sunday was the first time most of the Premiers had details of a new school funding model. On Monday she insisted that that be agreed to on Friday and blood curdling threats were issues to the Premiers if they didn’t sign up. Then on Tuesday she extended the dead line to June 30 and said they wouldn’t have to sign on until June 30. On Wednesday the Catholics realised they were being duded at least $1 billion over the next 6 years. On Thursday the Prime Minister announced that the Catholics would have a special funding arrangement which will restore that $1 billion. So this is a the shifting sands of the Prime Minister’s hopeless approach to public policy in Australia. She started the week with Tasmania and South Australia inclined to support a new school funding model. She’s ended the week with South Australia and Tasmania expressing doubts about a new school funding model and saying a great deal more work needed to be done. She started the week with Victoria and New South Wales being open to a new funding model. She’s ended the week with Victoria, New South Wales, Western Australia, Queensland and the Northern Territory all indicating that they are a long way from signing onto a new school funding model. This follows the Prime Minister’s failure on media reforms, the incompetent handling of superannuation, the new superannuation taxes. We’re now in April 2013. A new school funding model is designed to be up and running by the end of this year and we are a very, very long way from agreement. The Prime Minister has pinned all of her hopes on announcements from COAG on the school funding model and in fact has turned away empty handed from today’s long meeting with the Premiers. One wonders whether there will be a new agreement in fact by the end of this year and I’m concerned in fact that the Prime Minister has set up this model to fail so she can have a fight with the Premiers rather than actually achieve an outcome. It seems to me she has an election plan rather than an education plan because otherwise she would have done this in an entirely different way. She would have negotiated with the States months ago. She would have been releasing data and quantum’s to the States months ago. Instead she tried ambush them on Sunday and failed to reach any agreement today. The Government should accept the Coalition’s offer of extending the current arrangements for one to two years while we work out the Government’s mess that they’ve created all of their own complete failure to understand that public policy cannot be done through the megaphone of the Prime Minister’s press conferences, but in fact when you are dealing with the States who actually run State education systems you have to work with them rather than against them. Now the Prime Minister failure is want to express her belief in her own famed negotiating skills. Today she’s walked away from COAG without any States signing up to a new school funding model just months before the end of the financial year. Journalist: Today was just a step in the process though, the real deadlines June 30 isn’t it? Pyne: Well the Prime Minister has extended a deadline to June 30 because she’s failed to get agreement from the States. The Government’s had the Gonski reforms since November 2011. It has been a moveable feast this week for the Prime Minister. She realising her failure to properly deal with the States has extended the deadline to June 30. That in itself is a demonstration of the Prime Ministers incompetence as the Parliament itself rises on June 27 and won’t sit again until after the election, so is she seriously suggesting they will legislate a new school funding model in spite of the fact that not one State may have signed up to a new school funding model. Even the ACT says that in spite of losing money, in the ACT has said it will sign to an agreement, hurting Canberrans. Katy Gallagher hardly seemed enthusiastic about the new school funding model. Journalist: What do you make of the Government’s approach we’re they’re now saying that they will now pass legislation that will now allow for agreements then to be struck after legislation is passed. I mean what sort of form would that take? What is your understanding of how that could be achieved? Pyne: Well goodness knows how that can be achieved. I mean the Prime Minister is changing the arrangements from day to day. Now Ii she seriously believes legislation can be passed without anyone actually knowing what the school funding model will look like in the end then this is hope over reality. Journalist: But that’s the same approach she’s taken with the National Disability Insurance Scheme. Pyne: Well that is no recommendation for the school funding agreements. Now, the NDIS has also been mishandled by the Government and that is why we are in this position where towards the end of this financial year the Government still can’t say the billions that will be required for the National Disability Insurance Scheme. They promised a billion dollars, the Productivity Commission says it will be eight billion dollars. Now just because she’s doing something with the NDIS doesn’t mean it translates across into a school funding model. The sector needs certainty. The sectors had certainty and now they have complete uncertainty. On Sunday the Prime Minister said that there must be agreement on Friday. We are now in the position where there is no agreement. We don’t know what the new schools funding model will look like. The states are going away and each individually dealing with the Commonwealth. The communiqué from COAG today talked about new school funding ‘models’. Well for decades there has been one model. The Education Resource Index followed by the Socio Economic Status Index. She’s now talking about many different models. The central core of the Gonski Report is that there should be one national uniform funding model. The Prime Minister is contemplating the possibility of up to sixteen different models. And that was compounded by the fact that she’s apparently given comfort to the Catholic system that there will be an extra billion dollars for Catholic schools. Well if you are a Jewish school or a Muslim school or a Lutheran school why wouldn’t you now turn up in Canberra and say well if there’s a special funding arrangement for the Catholics there should be a special funding arrangement for us. She’s created mayhem and chaos in school funding when before there was certainty. The Coalition is prepared to give the Government the opportunity to restore certainty, if the Government would accept that offer, and continue the current arrangement for one to two years while we sort out the mess of her own creation. Journalist: Is the Coalition actually opposed to the idea of this school resource standard indexation for schools to catch up that fall below that standard? Pyne: Well the Government’s indexation arrangements are less generous than the current model. The Prime Minister is actually cutting funding to schools over the next six years from the Commonwealth’s perspective. Any new money that is been expected to be injected is required to be offered by the States. The current indexation arrangements on average for the past six years have been six per cent indexation. The Prime Minister is offering now three different levels of indexation: 3%, 3.6% and 4.7%. Is there any wonder that the State Premiers and Chief Ministers are wanting to go away and examine more of the detail? All of this could have been worked out over the last few months. Instead the Government waited to ambush the states at the last minute and try and threaten them into an agreement through a public display of megaphone diplomacy. Journalist: If this can be worked out over the next ten weeks and an agreement is struck with the Coalition scrap it if you win Government? Pyne: If there is an agreement struck, if there is an agreement struck the Coalition is not in the business of creating more uncertainty as this Government is in the business of creating uncertainty. So we will examine where it ends up but we had said earlier in the week that we’d wait to see what happened at COAG and if an agreement were struck at COAG we would look at honouring that agreement because we want certainty in the school funding sector. What’s emerged out of COAG today is complete mayhem. It’s been a failure for the Prime Minister; another demonstration of the incompetence of the Minister. We now have much less idea of what the future looks like for school funding than we had even before the Prime Minister’s week of mayhem since last Saturday. Journalist: But will you wait until June 30 to have a final view because you still don’t know what the end result will be. So is June 30 now when you’ll resolve… Pyne: Well no one can make any decisions about what the Coalition could do until the Government and the States make decisions about school funding model. That’s why I suspect that the Prime Minister has set this whole thing up to fail from the beginning. In my view, she wants a fight with the States; she doesn’t want resolution because if she’d wanted resolution she would have worked with the States. I suspect she has an election plan rather than an education plan and the losers from that are students. Journalist: But you’ll respond to whatever happens after June 30. You’ll see what the situation is after June 30 and then you’ll come to a position on… Pyne: Well the Coalition can’t indicate a final position until we know what the Government’s final position is. Now we would like the schools funding models to have be resolved by now as would the sector. This should have all been resolved last year because we want the focus of education policy to be on parental engagement, teacher quality, a robust curriculum and principal autonomy. Instead in April, towards the end of April 2013, we are still arguing about a school funding model because the Prime Minister has failed to show the necessary leadership and skills to bring the States and Territories with her. Journalist: Just on your comments that this was designed to fail, it’s an election ploy to have a fight with the States. That seems extraordinary given that what seems to be a pretty genuine personal commitment by the Prime minister on the subject of education. Pyne: Well I don’t agree that the Prime Minister has a genuine personal commitment on the subject of education. The outcomes for schools and for school students under her Prime Ministership have gone backwards. Her focus is not on the things that matter in schools. It’s not on teacher quality, it’s not on curriculum, it’s not on parental engagement, it’s not on principal autonomy. She is obsessed with peripheral issues in education and this demonstration of her failure over the last week just highlights that she is not really confident to be the Prime Minister. Journalist: Policy differences aside, are you doubting her personal commitment to this and do you think she would really think she would trash what she has been on the record for, for years saying this is a personal policy area of hers just to create this fight with the states? Pyne: Well I can’t see into the Prime Minister’s mind. I don’t know whether her supposed personal commitment to education is anything more than politics. Having viewed her for many years I have long given up believing that the Prime Minister is anything other than a political animal. Everything about this Government is driven by politics, not by policy and that’s what’s driven this education debate since last Saturday. First cuts to higher education, robbing Peter to pay Paul and now ending the week with nothing to show for her feigned negotiations skills. Everything that drives this Government is about politics not about good policy for students. But I can’t tell you whether the Prime Minister is genuine about this any more than I can tell you whether she is genuine about anything. Journalist: The WA Premier is shaping up as the hardest nut to crack over this funding issue. As a student of history you may recall he wasn’t a fan of the national agreement on the hospitals. But eventually after quite a long time he came round to that idea. Is it likely he will change his mind? Pyne: Well if the question is; is Collin Barnett likely to change his mind? That is a matter you should put to Collin Barnett. The truth is, the model proposed.... Journalist: He did engage in a lot of chest beating over the hospital plan and eventually he signed up for it. So is he just grandstanding at the moment? Pyne: Well I can’t answer that question. Knowing Collin Barnett I think he’s absolutely genuine that this is a very bad deal for Western Australia. This is a bad deal for Western Australia, for South Australia and the ACT. Now because Katie Gallagher is a Labor warrior, she was the only Chief Minister or Premier this afternoon to indicate the ACT, in spite of being losers will probably sign up to this agreement. But then after further negotiation, Jay Weatherill who been before this week supportive of a new school funding model, has clearly indicated South Australia is a loser from this model and therefore he has to rethink his previous support. Western Australian students go backward under this model. This is a Government that has delivered $11 billion of cuts to education over the last twelve months and is offering $9.4 billion s of spending. So this is a saving for the Federal Government over the next six years of at least $1.6 billion. That is not even taking into account lower levels of indexation that the Government is offering than the ones in the current agreement for SES and the AGSRC. Journalist: But isn’t most of this just posturing from the Premiers, who after all are just trying to get their hands on some more money from the Federal Government. Pyne: No I think it’s posturing from the Prime Minister, who has had this Gonski report since November 2011. Who could have been making these negotiations work last year, who has waited until the final eleventh hour to ambush the State Premiers and Chief Ministers on Sunday. Which was the first time most of them had the quantum of spending that they were expected to come up with and that is no way to run a federation. In fact the Prime Minister who has been posturing on this and the States and the Chief Ministers can rightly feel they have been badly treated by the Prime Minister. Thank you. ENDS.