Labor accused of playing 'bogeyman politics' over private school funding
Treasurer says Bill Shorten trying to scare Australians over threatened funding cuts to private schools, and says Coalition’s new deals will be based on need
Education minister Simon Birmingham said some Australian private schools that were overfunded might lose money under the Coalition’s new school funding agreements for 2018. Photograph: Paul Miller/AAP
**rielle Chan
@**riellechan
Wednesday 28 September 2016 10.00 AESTLast modified on Wednesday 28 September 201610.01 AEST
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The treasurer,
Scott Morrison, has defended private school funding, accusing Bill Shorten of playing “bogeyman politics” but said the Coalition’s new school funding agreements for 2018 would be based on need.
“[Bill Shorten] goes out there, puts the sheet over his head as the big ghost scary thing he does every day and he tries to scare the Australian people every single day,” he told the ABC.
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Asked why taxpayers were funding schools like the elite selective school Sydney Grammar, Morrison said the taxpayer funding was a small proportion of total spending by private schools like Grammar.
“All Australians pay taxes Michael and all Australians receive some sort of services for those taxes, some receive more than others, some people pay more tax than others,” Morrison said.
“Some people in net terms don’t pay any tax at all and there’s a group of those people in Australia today.”
His comments follow the
admission from the education minister, Simon Birmingham, on Monday night that some private schools that were overfundedmight lose money in the new agreements.
Morrison said the Birmingham was working towards a fair deal based on school needs.
Morrison said Labor “played favourites” when they completed the Gonski school funding agreements but left out states like Western Australia.
Labor offered funding agreements with the states prior to the 2013 election, based on the Gonski report with the condition that no school would be worse off . The New South Wales
Coalition government was the first to sign up, with the condition that for every $2 of commonwealth funding, NSW would spend $1 on top of general school funding.
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The Victorian Napthine government also signed the deal with Labor, as did the South Australian Labor government and the ACT Labor government.
However other Coalition states such as Queensland’s Newman government, Western Australia’s Barnett government and the Coalition government in the Northern Territory refused to sign until after the election of the Abbott government. Those states then signed up with reciprocal conditions.
Before the election, the Coalition flagged that it would break those six-year funding agreements and renegotiate the final two years for 2018-19. Most states are opposing the plan though Birmingham will not outline his final deal until early next year.
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