It’s now official. The Senate last night voted 34-31 in favour of the Turnbull Government’s schools funding package. It follows two days of parliamentary debate over the package, which the Government agreed to increase from $18.5 billion to $23.5 billion in order to gain the support of Senate crossbenchers. The first round of the vote was supported by 10 of the crossbenchers, although Liberal Democrat senator David Leyonhjelm opposed the package.
The ABC describes the drama that unfolded in parliament yesterday:
While the Coalition was quietly confident it had the numbers, it had been on tenterhooks waiting for the final vote.
Labor, the unions and the Catholic education sector spent much of yesterday trying furiously trying to sway Senator Lambie’s vote but she made it clear to the chamber that she “strongly supported the legislation and would not be persuaded otherwise”.
Lower House MPs were recalled to approve the amended bill and those on the Coalition side clapped, cheered and whistled as Cabinet Minister Christopher Pyne hailed the passage of “the most significant reform to school education in Australia’s history”…
In a bid to win over the crossbench, Education Minister Simon Birmingham agreed to spend an extra $5 billion, on top of the additional $18.6 already announced, rolling out the funding over six years instead of 10.
He also agreed to set up an independent body to monitor the way the money was spent.
While Labor remained firmly opposed to the plan, the Greens had been on the verge of supporting it and heavily influenced the compromises the Minister eventually made.
But once the Coalition secured the 10 crossbench votes it needed, the Greens announced they would oppose the package, citing “special” transitional arrangements put in place for Catholic schools.
With their votes no longer critical to determining the fate of the bill, intense internal pressures were instantly relieved.
The party was in fact on the verge of splitting, with the NSW Greens heaping pressure on Senator Lee Rhiannon to vote against the bBill even though the party’s leader Richard Di Natale and Sarah Hanson-Young wanted to back it.
Meanwhile, the Associated Press has provided a useful list explaining how Gonski 2.0 will work for schools:
- Still calculates schools funding with a base per-student amount (known as SRS) plus loadings to compensate for poorer, disabled, non-English speaking and indigenous students and schools that are small or remote.
- The per student base amount in 2018 will be $10,576 for primary students and $13,290 for secondary school students.
- Those amounts will be indexed at 3.56 per cent a year through to 2020, and move to a floating indexation based on inflation and wage increases from 2021 (with a minimum increase each year of 3 per cent).
- Government funding to private schools takes into account a measure of parental capacity to pay. How that’s calculated will be reviewed and may change in 2019. In the meantime, $46 million in transition funds will be available to Catholic and independent schools in 2018.
- The commonwealth share of funding will move to 20 per cent of SRS for public schools and 80 per cent for private schools – more than its average share now and in line with historical arrangements.
- Schools below the SRS will move up over six years and schools above SRS will move down over 10 years.
- Total commonwealth school funding will increase by $23.5 billion over the next decade.
- State and territory governments are expected to make up the rest (ie 80 per cent for public schools and 20 per cent for private). Late changes to the legislation lock in regular increases to make sure states reach these required amounts over the next six years or at the very least don’t cut funding.
- An independent National School Resourcing Board will be established to keep an eye on how the states and other school authorities distribute funds to schools and review funding levels and other matters, including how parental capacity to pay is calculated. This board will cost $7.2 million over four years.
- Businessman David Gonski, who led the 2011 review of school funding, has agreed to head a new review of the most effective ways to spend money to improve student achievement.
Great to see the Senate crossbench working effectively to prevent Labor’s and The Greens’ pedantry from scuttling reform.
