This article is more than 6 years old

This article is more than 6 years old

Tony Abbott has said he was not lobbied by the Whitehouse institute of design, where his daughter Frances was given an undisclosed scholarship of $60,0000, over higher education reform that would benefit private institutes.

The Abbott government announced in the budget it would extend Commonwealth Grant Scheme subsidies to courses provided by non-university providers.

Asked at a media conference on Friday if he had been lobbied by the institute on higher education reform, the prime minister responded: “No, I wasn’t.”



The institute is a member of the Australian Council for Private Education and Training (Acpet), which strongly advocated extending the funding scheme to private institutes.



Questions have been raised over whether the prime minister should have declared the scholarship, which the institute said was only the second of its kind awarded in its 25-year history, on his parliamentary interests register.



Frances Abbott was recommended for the scholarship, which is not publicly advertised and which other Whitehouse students said was not open for application, by the chairman of the board of governors, Les Taylor. Taylor is a long-time friend of the prime minister and has donated to him and the Liberal party.



The prime minister maintained on Friday that “all the disclosure requirements were fully complied with”.



Abbott described the reporting of the scholarship as “a bit of dirt digging”. He continued: “I think families should be left out of it.”



“She won the scholarship on academic potential, she’s kept it on academic performance. I’m very, very proud of her,” the prime minister said.



Abbott directly criticised Guardian Australia, which revealed the scholarship’s existence on Wednesday.



“I know this is something that the Guardian is obsessive about and fair enough, if you want to have these obsessions go for it. But what I think the Australian public are interested in, they want to know what’s in the budget,” the prime minister said.

Late on Friday Ian Tudor, the chief executive of the institute, issued a release saying that “at no time” had it “lobbied the prime minister on issues of education policy or the accreditation of Whitehouse courses”.

Tudor reiterated the institute “has offered a variety of scholarships for 25 years”.



“All scholarships are discretionary and awarded on merit. As with any private educational establishment, we have a duty to protect the privacy of our current and former students and therefore are not providing details on discussions that led to individual scholarship decisions,” Tudor said.



The institute’s website says no scholarships are available for students starting on the bachelor of design course but that scholarships for “further study may be offered during the academic year”.



Guardian Australia has issued a series of detailed questions to the institute relating to the selection criteria for the “chairman’s scholarship” that Frances Abbott attained, who has attained it in the past, and what the application process is. The institute has not responded.

