Tony Abbott rejects claims of broken election promise on Gonski school funding

Updated

Prime Minister Tony Abbott has rejected accusations the Coalition misled voters on education funding ahead of the election, saying Labor "utterly mismanaged" the issue.

The Government will scrap Labor's so-called Gonski plans for school funding and renegotiate agreements with all states and territories within a year.

Before the federal election, the Coalition promised to meet Labor's funding promises for four years.

Yesterday, Education Minister Christopher Pyne announced he would honour funding for 2014 but beyond that, a new model would be implemented.

He said Labor removed $1.2 billion from the education budget before the election when it failed to clinch deals with Western Australia, Queensland and the Northern Territory.

Mr Pyne said those three will receive an extra $230 million for next year to bring them into line with the other states and territories.

Mr Abbott has rejected Opposition Leader Bill Shorten's assertion the Coalition is abandoning its election promise.

"[We're] absolutely honouring our pre-election commitments," Mr Abbott told reporters in Canberra this morning.

The point I make is that we will keep our commitments. One of the hallmarks of this Government will be that we keep our commitments. Prime Minister Tony Abbott

"In fact, we're going to do a little bit better.

"What we said before the election was that there would be the same quantum of funding, the same quantum of funding under us as under the Labor Party.

"Now that we know that Labor ripped $1.2 billion out of school funding just before the election - we're going to put some of that back in.

"We're going to put an extra $230 million into school funding that wouldn't have been there had Labor won the election.

"One of the hallmarks of this Government will be that we keep our commitments."

The Labor Party has accused the Coalition of breaking its election promise.

"Before the election when Tony Abbott wanted people's votes he would say anything to them. Now that he has their votes, now he's walking away from his own promise," said Opposition Leader Bill Shorten.

"This is crazy and it's a broken promise to every parent in Australia."

'Policy chaos' at national level, says Weatherill

Mr Pyne is heading for a showdown with his state and territory counterparts over the issue when they meet in Canberra on Friday.

The jurisdictions which signed up with the former government's funding arrangements have made it clear they are unimpressed with Mr Pyne.

South Australia's Treasurer Jay Weatherill says the Government has backflipped on its election commitment.

"This Liberal Government has created the impression that there was no difference between Labor and Liberal when it came to school funding and within 10 weeks of the election, they've walked away from that promise," he said.

"The policy chaos that is occurring at a national level now is extraordinary. And it has to stop.

"Just at a time when people, I think, after a federal election, we're looking for a new start... we have policy chaos which is driving down these arrangements.

"These are simply agreements entered into by two sovereign governments that should be abided by.

"We shouldn't have to insist on sovereign governments abiding by their agreements. It should go without saying."

It's a 'pretty major broken election promise'

Tasmania's Premier Lara Giddings also voiced her concern about the Commonwealth's move.

"The reality is, what we have here is a Heads of Agreement that has been signed. That is a deal. That is a contract," she said.

"That, in itself, shows that Christopher Pyne and Tony Abbott are breaking an election promise.

"They're breaking a contract to the Tasmanian people.

"I think it's absolutely appalling that they can say one thing before the election and just a matter of weeks later backflip on it to the point that people who voted for the Liberal Party, believing that this education reform would not change, have now been told that it will.

"The reality is governments, national governments, can change their mind. You can't hold them accountable to that.

"It's the public who will hold them accountable in terms of a broken election promise and this one is a pretty major broken election promise."

Mr Pyne said last night that the Coalition was keeping its promises, not breaking them.

"We promised that we would do two things: we've got exactly the same funding envelope as Labor across the forward estimates; and we would change the school funding model to remove the command-and-control features from Canberra. And that's exactly what we're going to do," he told the ABC's Lateline program.

"We said that there was a unity ticket between the Labor Party and the Liberal Party on school funding and there is.

"I always said that we would improve the model because we didn't like the command-and-control features from Canberra, we didn't like the heavy regulation, the unnecessarily prescriptive nature of the Labor Party's school funding model."

Western Australia Premier Colin Barnett says states who signed up to the so-called Gonski school funding model need to "get real" and accept it's going to be scrapped.

Mr Barnett says the other states need to accept the agreements they made with the previous government no longer exist.

"The other states are running around saying: "We signed up!" Well, get real - it's a political process," he said.

Mr Barnett says he thinks Western Australia will ultimately secure a better deal with the Coalition.

Topics: education, schools, primary-schools, public-schools, secondary-schools, government-and-politics, federal---state-issues, federal-government, australia, nsw, nt, qld, sa, tas, vic, wa, act

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