Scott Morrison has defended the government’s Gonski 2.0 education package, warning against “special deals” as Catholic education authorities claim it could lead to $5,000 fee rises in some primary schools.
In a pre-budget interview on Sunday the treasurer said the education package – which will boost spending by $2bn over four years – implemented needs-based funding and should not be changed.
Since it was announced on Tuesday the education package has been attacked by the Catholic school sector, which has complained that, despite 3.7% growth in its funding over a decade, many of its schools will be worse off.
The education minister, Simon Birmingham, said on Thursday the government would not give in to “bullying” from any state or school sector because any special deal would unravel the principle of needs-based funding.
The Sunday Telegraph reported that an analysis by Catholic education authorities claimed that some Catholic primary schools could increase fees by up to $5,000 a year by 2023. Some 78 New South Wales Catholic primary schools would be hit with fee increases of more than $1,000 a child a year, it said.
Birmingham has called the analysis “misleading and fundamentally flawed”, pointing to the fact that funding for Catholic schools would increase by $1.2bn over the next four years.
In an interview on Channel Nine on Sunday, Morrison said the government had not picked a fight with the Catholic sector, explaining that it had applied a needs-based funding standard to all schools.
“Now, if you have a school, in the same community, with the same parents and the same needs of the children in those schools then they should be funded the same way,” he said.
“You shouldn’t get more money because there’s one name on the school gate at that school and a different name on the school gate at the school next door.
“This is about trying to get us to fair standard of supporting the needs of every single child in the country.”
Asked about the feared fee rises, Morrison said the package aimed to get “everybody on the same wicket” after 10 years, but schools started from different levels, accounting for the different rates of funding growth.
“There are some schools that are getting more support because of special deals that were done in the past. Now, there shouldn’t be special deals. There should be one deal.”
Asked if the government would do a deal with the Catholic sector, Morrison said he would instead “argue for fairness” but there was room for “transitional arrangements” for some schools with children with disabilities.
“We can’t walk away from the principle which says that every child should have the funding for their schooling based on a clear standard.”
Asked if there would be a row in the party room on Tuesday as Tony Abbott has suggested, Morrison said he and the prime minister refused to be distracted from the aim of fair funding for schools.
The finance minister, Mathias Cormann, told Sky News on Sunday that Birmingham had done “an outstanding job both in putting the package together and in selling it”.
Asked if the package should be modified, Cormann said he would not “pre-empt anything” but the government was committed to a genuine needs-based funding formula which was sector-blind.
The shadow treasurer, Chris Bowen, told ABC’s Insiders on Sunday that the Catholic system would be “in meltdown” if the policy was implemented as planned.
“I have been briefed by the Catholic education office in Sydney, for example, that school fees in my electorate – typical of many electorates – will have to double,” he said.
“This is a government which has not consulted with the Catholic system, and their one-size-fits-all model will have significant ramifications for the 20% of Australian students educated in the Catholic system.”
Bowen said the Gonski 2.0 schools policy reduced funding by $22bn over 10 years compared with levels promised by Labor, and 85% of schools would still be short of the resource standard after 10 years.
