By Leith van Onselen

The Turnbull Government’s war on youth rolls on.

After it all but confirmed that it would slash university funding, it is now looking to cut school funding as well. From The Canberra Times:

The federal government’s refusal to yield on schools funding has forced a partial retreat from the biggest state with NSW Premier Mike Baird proceeding with a new compromise deal which would spread out the final two years of Gonski funding over four years, saving Canberra $610 million in payments over the forward estimates, and more than twice that nationally. …the Commonwealth liability would drop from $4.5 billion to $3.2 billion assuming the four-year option were applied nationally… According to a well-placed source, the Baird proposal would result in an average cut per NSW school over the four-year forward estimates budget period of $198,116 with the Catholic school sector down by $117.2 million; other independent schools down by $66.6 million; and the public school sector down on the full Gonski formula by $426.1 million…

By contrast, by addressing the negative gearing and CGT rorts, and in the process raising some $32.1 billion over 10 years according to the Parliamentary Budget Office, Labor has promised to maintain school funding:

Labor’s commitment is to spend $4.5 billion to fund the final two years of Gonski, compared to the Coalition which wants to negotiate new funding arrangements to apply after 2018.

As I noted yesterday, the barriers facing Australia’s youth are already becoming prohibitive, and the Turnbull Government’s school and university funding cuts would only add to the pain. Not only will students graduate with lower quality school educations and higher university debts under the Coalition’s plan, but they are also likely to face poor job prospects following the hollowing-out of the economy, as well as increasing automation. The Coalition’s overall cuts to education funding also makes a complete mockery of Turnbull’s “innovation agenda” which is all about highly educated Australians driving productive, disruptive ideas and investments.

Add to this Australia’s sky high housing costs, which Turnbull has himself endorsed, and a tax system that will increasingly punish income earners while largely ignoring wealth, and the future facing many younger Australians is looking increasingly downbeat.

In defending Australia’s property tax rorts, while slashing funding to schools and universities, the Coalition has effectively waged a war against Australia’s youth.

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