04:43

The education minister, Dan Tehan, was asked earlier on ABC TV about independent schools’ demands to guarantee their funding.

Independent schools face a dropoff in enrolments as parents cut back due to hard times, and because the student census date is in August (term 3), declining enrolments will hit their government funding.

They want the census date brought forward to term 1 and payments brought forward.

Tehan said the best thing schools could do to ensure their viability is to reopen, but he also sounded open to the funding guarantee.

Asked what the federal government could do to assist, he replied: