Under fire: Education Minister Christopher Pyne. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen But the big Coalition-run state of NSW had just signed an agreement, and its counterpart in Victoria was about to do the same. As he announced the unity ticket, Abbott opened the press conference by griping that "Labor has been using school funding as a political wedge", a revealing remark that Abbott sensed the political tide was running against him. "We will end the uncertainty by guaranteeing no school will be worse off," he said at St Andrews Christian College in Melbourne's suburbs. "We will honour the agreements that Labor entered into. We will guarantee the offers that Labor has made. We will make sure no school is worse off." By apparently adopting Labor's policy so wholeheartedly, Abbott successfully neutralised the issue.

The refrain "unity ticket" was to be heard often during the campaign that eventually led to Abbott's rise to the prime ministership. Less than three months in office, the Coalition government this week backflipped on the backflip, exposing that press conference at St Andrews College as a politically driven volte-face to safeguard an election victory against Rudd. The funding from Gonski will now last only one year. A new deal must be struck, to howls of protest from schools and the states. Abbott and Pyne are now being accused of a fundamental breach of faith with the electorate, a broken promise on par with the carbon tax reversal that Abbott used so devastatingly to undermine Labor in office. Pyne has lost control of the politics of this.

Given the week began with Abbott government trailing Labor in the Nielsen poll and perhaps experiencing the shortest honeymoon of any government since reliable polling began, it is little wonder that Coalition MPs are questioning the judgment of Pyne and Abbott. Opposition Leader Bill Shorten can barely contain his glee as he rushes, TV cameras in tow, from school to school to proclaim Abbott has backtracked on his "no surprises, no excuses" mantra. Abbott denies a betrayal, saying the undertaking was only to maintain the Gonski funding "envelope". But, certainly, agreements with states won't be honoured, offers that Labor has made are not guaranteed and there are no assurances every individual school will not be worse off. And Labor has most education stakeholders, and the two big Coalition state governments, backing its case. More than that, the states are howling in protest at what they see as a commitment that has been royally welshed on.

NSW Education Minister Adrian Piccoli emerged from Friday's state and territory ministers meeting fuming that "all in all the ministers are very disappointed". His Victorian counterpart, Martin Dixon, said the state would insist that its funding deal with the former government must be honoured. "We signed the agreement with the federal government, not a political party,'' he said. Behind the political theatre is an issue of crucial national importance. A reform package backed by almost all stakeholders and negotiated over four painstaking years has been dumped, at a time when standards are slipping and disadvantaged students are neglected. Where once Australia ranked in the top three in international surveys of educational attainment for high school students, it is now lagging way behind. For primary students, the shortfall is even more acute.

Pyne has not offered an alternative, only a set of motherhood principles about "teacher quality, a robust curriculum, principal autonomy and parental engagement", while letting loose a volley of alliterative sobriquets for the Opposition Leader, variously dubbed "Shambles", "Saboteur" and "Shortchange" Shorten. In a spectacular display of obfuscation, denial and not a small measure of chutzpah, Pyne has contradicted the government's former position, and himself. He has called for the urgent need for a national approach, and then said the states need more control. The politics, and education policy-making, this week have been so awful that many are scratching their heads as to what the Coalition is up to. For many educators, the reversal is being driven by the Coalition's desire to tilt federal funding back towards the private schools, which were the major beneficiaries of the Howard-era system.

Piccoli maintains that Pyne implied during Friday's heated meeting that public schools may lose funding. When he sought clarification on the issue, "none was forthcoming" from Pyne. "He's still fighting that [private versus public] war," Piccoli said. "But that war is over. That war was going on for 20 years but what Gonski did was end it." Public schools bear the heaviest load in educating disadvantaged students and under the Gonski model they were to receive a far greater share of federal funding. The Howard system - targeting funding on the basis of the socio-economic status of the suburbs where students came from - tended to favour the private sector, and many wealthier schools, such as those who had boarders from rich farming families who lived in otherwise poorer regional regions.

Gonski changed that, offering loadings for a variety of disadvantaged students, regardless of what type of school they went to. Pyne made clear again this week that he sees the states as being primarily responsible for public education and the only backers for his reforms were some small independent and Christian private schools. Those schools believe they will get more money. If ideology is part of it, legacy building is another. The Coalition wants to claim education reform as its own, perhaps bruised by the taunts of Julia Gillard after the September 7 poll that much of her agenda remains intact. Certainly, the Education Minister wants to make his mark and Abbott is keen to be remembered as a social reformer. Consider the Prime Minister's paid parental leave scheme and embrace of disability insurance, which he has renamed as NDIS to change it from Gillard's "DisabilityCare", a title designed to echo Labor's Medicare reform for which it is renowned.

Another explanation is the budget pressures for the government. Some 70 per cent of the federal money earmarked for Gonski over six years come in the final two years and - along with NDIS - education spending looms as a budgetary time bomb. If there was method in the madness, Pyne's chaotic unveiling of the new education position - via a media interview followed by a succession of new announcements - didn't suggest it. Even his fellow Liberals are saying it makes a mockery of the oft-repeated pledge for "adult government". "Pyne has lost control of the politics of this," observed one frontbencher. NSW Premier Barry O'Farrell launched a blistering broadside accusing Pyne of behaving like he was in opposition, all media flash and no policy substance, let alone mature consultation.

An aggrieved Piccoli told Fairfax Media that, as of late Thursday afternoon, four days after the story broke, he had still not heard from his federal counterpart. "It's been run 100 per cent through the media," Piccoli said. "No formal communication. No letters. No phone calls." When he informed Pyne last month he was about to release a school by school funding breakdown based on the Gonski injection of funds for four years, the Education Minister did not warn him he was wasting his time. Labor, for its part, wants to hammer home the "broken promise" on education for all its worth. "What the carbon tax did to Julia, we want this to do to Abbott," one Labor operative said. "We want this to haunt him for the first term." A Coalition minister retorts that Pyne has "got the advantage of three years of government, and the levers to fix it".

Abbott - and Pyne - certainly have time on their side. But education agreements are notoriously difficult to negotiate. They take years, and Pyne has some irate interlocutors across the negotiating table who now have only a year's worth of funding guaranteed. The "heated" discussion of education ministers on Friday highlights the strength of feeling. And the education double backflip feeds a growing narrative that is undermining the Prime Minister's credo of "we say what we mean and do what we say". The "budget emergency" and warnings about rising debt and deficit of the Coalition in opposition has been met in government by increased spending and tax cuts, not to mention a bid to massively lift the debt ceiling.

Abbott's constant criticism of Labor's handing of the relationship with Indonesia was blown up by the rupture in relations between the two countries after revelations of spying on Indonesian leader Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. The spying took place under a Labor government, but Abbott bears responsibility for further antagonising Indonesia with his ham-fisted diplomacy. Through some misfortune, but mostly mis-steps, it has been an inglorious debut from the new government. It's hard to know whether a clear articulation by the Coalition before the election that it would dismantle Gonski would have cost Abbott power. Rudd was easing off his polling highs, which saw him dead even with the Coalition, before Abbott's now infamous education "unity ticket" press conference, even if he remained in striking distance.

Labor's long period of leadership battles and political dysfunction, not to mention the erratic display from Rudd during the campaign itself, indicate the Coalition would still have been favourites to prevail. Even so, a deception took place that undoubtedly benefited Abbott. It seems the government always intended on dumping the policy once in office. Why else would the Coalition be saying it hasn't broken a promise? "Pyne has always hated it," one Coalition frontbencher said. But, along the way, well-laid political strategies have been ruined. By rushing through the carbon tax repeal bills as his first priority in government, Abbott wanted to use Labor's newfound opposition to the abolition of the carbon tax - which it backed under Rudd - to hammer home its continuing dishonesty.

The diplomatic crisis with Indonesia put paid to that, dominating the last sitting week of Parliament. And, as the Coalition prepares to return to Canberra next week to push the carbon repeal bills through the Senate, it will likely be overshadowed by the furore over Gonski. Educators, the states and community groups are gathering en masse to save the reforms. Rather than questions about trust being levelled at Labor, they are now being asked loudly, and often, of the Coalition. Education crisis Over the past decade, the performance of Australian students has declined at all levels of achievement, notably at the top end. – David Gonski, leader of education review.

■ Australian primary school students rank 27th of 45 nations for spelling. One in four don’t reach acceptable standard. ■ High school students are slipping badly on maths. Reading and scientific literacy also falling compared to other nations. ■ Divide in standards between public and private schools is widening. ■ Funding allocated on socio-economic status of students’ home addresses. Schools with boarders, and those in gentrifying areas, did well. Public schools, especially in regional areas, suffered. THE GONSKI SOLUTION

It’s a lot of money, but I believe it is a wise investment in our children’s future and in our nation’s future. – Julia Gillard ■ $14.5 billion injection of funds across all governments over six years, average of $4000 per student. Big spending only to come in during years 5 and 6. ■ Funding made on assessment of student, not the area they live in. Loadings for disadvantaged students, including indigenous, disabled and poor pupils. ■ Deals had been done with NSW, Victorian, Tasmanian, ACT and South Australian governments, as well as Catholic and independent schools nationwide. PYNE’S PROPOSAL

I’ve never said that we will now re-introduce the previous government’s model. I have never said that, but I have defended it. – Christopher Pyne ■ Distributes actual Gonski money for only one year. Same funding “envelope” as Gonski for another three years. ■ No details of model until early next year. ■ Will reflect principles of teacher quality, robust curriculum, parental engagement, principal independence