5AA

E&OE................................

Keith Conlon: Christopher Pyne, good morning.

Hon Christopher Pyne MP:  Good morning, Keith.

Conlon: Is there a chance of this being a bi-partisan scheme?

Pyne:  Well it depends very much on what happens at COAG on Friday, the Council of Australian Governments, because if the states all sign up to it it will become the new school funding model and the Coalition won’t chop and change constantly.  I mean what schools need is certainty of funding.  What my criticism of this announcement yesterday is that it’s basically a savings measure. The Federal Government has uniquely announced a new school funding model which has $11 billion of savings and redirections and $9.4 billion of spending over six years. They’re actually making $1.6 billion. Labor has fallen so far they need to find so much money to fund their debt and deficit strategy over the last six years. They’re actually robbing Peter to pay Paul in the education sector.

Conlon: So you’re saying in effect that it’s good news for the schools but bad news for the universities?

Pyne:  Well its bad news for universities, for apprentices, for trainees, for the Laptops in Schools Programme.  They’re cancelling all of those and taking money away from apprentices and university students and they’re robbing future aspirations because the Prime Minister said she’d have a new school funding model. The old school funding model has been delivering since 2000 and yet the Government, the Prime Minister has a re-election plan, not an education plan.  And even David Gonski, the architect of the Gonski Report, has criticised the Prime Minister’s plan.

Reilly: But wouldn’t you in a nation where we’re sort of seeing gaps in the education system as the Gonski Report showed, start with the basics with the three Rs so that those students move through with the adequate skills to eventually get into university and hopefully in time we can re-fund. There’s no new money out there, the money for this has to come from within the education system as it sits now.

Pyne:  Well that appears to be the Government’s priority is to rob Peter to pay Paul.  Now under the Howard Government, of course, we had surpluses, we had a growing economy, we didn’t have a $300 billion debt, we didn’t have $173 billion of deficits over the last five years this Government has delivered, they have been giving cheques away to people and getting nothing in return.  And they have spent money like drunken sailors at a bar in Port Adelaide and, of course, now the chickens have come home to roost and they’re stealing from one sector of the education area to fund another one.  It’s not good public policy, it’s very bad public policy.

Conlon: We live in the now of course and if you look at the polls again this morning there’s a very good chance that you will be in Government and may be the Education Minister in a few months’ time, how would you fund the scheme that you say you will continue if it gets through COAG?

Pyne:  Well the policies the Coalition’s made are that we’ll keep the current funding model plus the indexation that we currently have which is about six percent over the last 10 years on average, which is higher than the rate that the current Government is offering in this deal, they’re offering 4.7. That’s already built into the forward estimates of the budget, so in fact the Coalition is offering a more generous education model.  We’re not proposing $1.6 billion of savings overall in education that this Government is proposing.

Conlon: So where will the money come from?

Pyne: Well the money is already built into the forward estimates Keith. So in fact we’re not proposing new spending but we’re not taking away spending, were not taking away spending. This Government is taking away by abolishing parts of the education spending, apprentices, trainees, universities etc. and school that is envisaged by this announcement yesterday.

Conlon: So you’re saying in your forward estimate you can embrace the changes and the extra dollars going to the States?

Pyne: I’m sorry I misunderstood; I thought you were talking about what the Coalition would do if this fell over. If COAG agrees to this, well then all of the cuts to universities, apprentices, trainees, school laptop programmes etc, all the redirections from literacy, numeracy, quality education, teacher rewards, that will all become the model and the States will have signed up to the model, the Commonwealth will have got it through and those cuts will go ahead. So there will be $1.6 billion of savings as envisaged by the Gillard Governments education plan.

Conlon: Well you’re criticising it, so will you try to restore the money to universities?

Pyne: Well we can’t save the country from Opposition Keith; we can only do it in Government.

Conlon: Well if, when you get in to Government can you help save the country by restoring the money to universities.

Pyne: If we get into Government we will rebuild the economy, we will balance the budget, we will focus on job security and cost of living. When we can afford to we will try and rebuild the damage that the Government has done whether it’s been to education, health, infrastructure and so on. But I can’t promise that I will put back all of these cuts on day one because obviously we’d need to find savings in other parts of the budget. This is where Labor has left the country unfortunately.

Conlon: And just in terms of the chances of it getting through the big States meeting on Friday, do you see even though there are several Coalition States, do you see that this might get through.

Pyne: Look, I can’t predict. I mean I think we’re yet to hear from New South Wales on the issue or Victoria. The truth is these meetings can sometimes go in different directions. Jay Weatherill has some serious questions to answer because of course South Australia has been badly duded in this deal.

Reilly: We have, yes.

Conlon: Or have we been duded or have we simply have the better system and less people in need?

Pyne: Well interestingly I mean New South Wales and Victoria are the supposed big winners from the new funding model and yet their NAPLAN results, their literacy and numeracy testing over many years has been vastly superior to South Australia’s. South Australia is at the bottom of the table of mainland states for all of our student outcomes. So if this was based on disadvantage and need as the Prime Minister says it is then South Australia should be getting more money, not less money than New South Wales and Victoria.

Conlon: Christopher Pyne thanks for your help this morning.

Pyne: Thank you.

Conlon: Education spokesperson for the Coalition - big meeting coming up Friday.

ENDS.