Latest news with #Gonski
ABC News
4 days ago
- Business
- ABC News
Victorian teachers plan to escalate their fight for more government funding of state schools
Victorian teachers are considering mass rallies targeting the premier, education minister and treasurer in response to what they say is massive underfunding of public schools. Earlier this month, Nine newspapers claimed the government had ripped $2.4 billion from school budgets by delaying its commitment to the Gonski education reforms by three years. The Age reported the savings were signed off by the premier. Jacinta Allan denied her government had withdrawn from its Gonski funding commitment. The Australian Education Union Victorian branch has written to all state school teachers outlining plans to escalate their campaign for better funding, including asking parents to join in mass emails to Ms Allan and Education Minister Ben Carroll, as well as public rallies. Branch president Justin Mullaly said those rallies would be outside school hours and would target the offices of Ms Allan and Mr Carroll, as well as Treasurer Jaclyn Symes. "The government has been duplicitous," Mr Mullaly said. "On the one hand they say that they are promoting the education state and that they're going to fully fund public schools, yet they're not actually planning at all on delivering the money for that." Mr Mullaly said the rallies would also target other senior MPs, but no dates had been set for the action. "We don't do this lightly; we don't engage in activities like this just at the drop of a hat," he said. "This is in response to a complete failure of the state government to deliver the funding the students in our schools need and to provide the resources that teachers, principals and education staff support need." The government said Victoria signed an agreement with the federal government in January that would secure 100 per cent of the Schooling Resource Standard (SRS) for Victorian government schools by 2034. "Our priority is — and has always been — that every child, no matter where they live, has access to a world-class education for free in a Victorian government school backed by full and fair funding," Mr Carroll said. He said the state government would provide 75 per cent of the SRS, which would see increased funding in stages during the term of the agreement. "The Victorian government is currently finalising these discussions with the Commonwealth," Mr Carroll said. "I will not be negotiating with the Commonwealth through the media."
The Age
4 days ago
- Politics
- The Age
Teachers to protest in the streets against school funding cuts
Teachers furious at a state government plan to underfund public schools for another six years will take to the streets in a mass protest personally targeting Premier Jacinta Allan as a parliamentary inquiry is launched into the growing scandal. The Australian Education Union on Friday wrote to Victorian teachers calling for immediate action against the government's school funding 'con job' which will strip $2.4 billion out of public schools by pushing back its commitment to fully fund the Gonski reforms by three years. The campaign outlined by the union's state leadership will involve paid advertisements, flooding the email inboxes of Allan and Education Minister Ben Carroll with letters from outraged teachers and school parents and public rallies targeting the pair and Treasurer Jaclyn Symes. The Greens this week established a parliamentary inquiry to examine the impact of the funding cuts on students, teachers and the state school system. The inquiry, backed by the Liberal Party and not voted against by Labor MPs, is due to report by 30 April next year, seven months before the next state election. Cabinet-in-confidence documents provided to this masthead uncovered a secret government decision taken in March last year to delay until 2031 additional funding needed by public schools to deliver the Gonski education reforms. In the three weeks since the funding cuts were exposed, Allan and Carroll have refused to publicly acknowledge the decision or canvass the implications for public school students and teachers. Loading The documents show that Carroll argued against the delay, warning it would damage the state's reputation, entrench Victoria as Australia's lowest per-student funding jurisdiction for government schools and aggravate the funding gap between government and non-government schools and disparity in outcomes between advantaged and disadvantaged students. Allan and Carroll, when questioned about the decision in parliament, have pointed to a 34 per cent increase per student in funding for public schools since Labor came to power 11 years ago and $17 billion in capital investments in new and upgraded schools.
The Age
5 days ago
- Politics
- The Age
Keeping power in check: The Age as a watchdog
In their feedback and correspondence, subscribers to The Age constantly make clear to me their desire for our journalists to hold society's powerful people and institutions to account. There is nothing new or innovative about the watchdog function of publications such as ours, indeed it is something people expect. But if you will allow me a small boast, I have to say I think we're quite good at it. In recent weeks our reporting has revealed: * The Victorian government is seeking to save $2.4 billion by delaying funding increases promised under the Gonski reforms, embedding the status of the so-called 'Education State' as the nation's poorest funder of public schools. * An outlaw bikie gang has been linked to a spate of firebombings targeting construction businesses across the state, and building industry insiders are concerned that government and law enforcement are not doing enough to stop it. * A dispute in the Victorian Liberal Party following a faux pas about Gina Rinehart has spilled over into a Fair Work matter. * Victorians' lives could be saved by mandating that defibrillators be registered on a public database. * A state government payroll tax touted as a salve for our ailing mental health system is overdelivering financially, but the state hasn't yet met a commitment for 170 new mental health beds. Most of these stories seek to hold our elected officials accountable along with the people they appoint to public roles, but our watchdog role extends beyond government to power in places such as sporting codes, business, schools, hospitals, the courts, society and the media. Of course, watchdog journalism doesn't cover everything we do, but it's at the heart of our purpose.
Sydney Morning Herald
21-05-2025
- Business
- Sydney Morning Herald
Victoria has a whopping debt. Jacinta Allan is betting that nobody cares
Symes freely admitted she could have banked some of the windfall gains Victoria received from larger than expected Commonwealth grants but instead decided to spend it. In post-fiscal Victoria, where red is the new black, a treasurer's preference to spend rather than save is claimed as a virtue. Independent economist Saul Eslake likens this to Symes flipping the bird to anyone concerned about Victoria's financial situation. He also points out that Victoria posting an operating surplus is a meaningless milestone on what appears to be a very distant path to fiscal repair. Before it can start paying down debt, the Victorian government must return the budget to cash surplus. This means, it must generate more revenue than the money it spends on both recurrent expenditure and capital investments. This is the measure the federal government uses when it declares a budget in surplus or deficit. According to this measure, the Victorian Labor government has not delivered a proper surplus since its first budget handed down 11 years ago and there is no prospect it will deliver one in the forseeable future. Tuesday's budget forecasts that the government will finish the current financial year $19 billion short and the four years of the budget period will chalk up a further $38.5 billion in losses. This is why the debt is forecast to rise from $155.5 billion this year to $194 billion in 2028-29. Before it can start paying down debt, the Victorian government must also be convinced this is something it actually needs to do. Why would they think this? They have run up debt to previously unimagined levels and won three elections along the way. Like a recovering alcoholic in denial, the government has set out a five-step strategy for recovery but has no plans to stop drinking. The government reckons it can stay on the sauce and keep functioning as a reliable provider of public services. Now for the caveats. The cost of Victoria's debt is starting to bite. We can see this in delayed government commitments to delivering important services, like full funding of public schools under the Gonski reforms, and promised capital works. We can see it in the weight of inefficient, state-based taxes layered onto business and property owners who pay more to operate in Victoria than they would in another state. We can see it in the fast rising cost of interest. When the state's annual interest bill reaches $10.6 billion in 2028-29, the government will be paying more to service debt than next year's total $8.2 billion appropriations for the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing. In other words, more public money will go to servicing debt than providing social services. The flip side of this is Victoria will next year pay its interest bill and provide $18.9 billion to education and $17 billion for health and parents will no longer have to use their own money to top up their kids' myki cards. On these measures, the joint hardly feels broke. The clear message from this budget is that stonking great debt is now a permanent feature of Victoria's finances and voters shouldn't be at all bothered by this. The anodyne choice of title for the budget papers – 'Focused on What Matters Most' – also gives license to look away from things that don't. Loading The challenge for the Victorian opposition, and particularly shadow treasurer James Newbury, is to convince enough people that debt matters too. He will begin this argument next week when he delivers his budget reply speech and to win it, will require cogency not readily associated with the Victorian Liberal Party. Newbury's first task is to reconnect in voters' minds the causal relationship between rising debt and taxes and the squeeze this ultimately places on government services. There is little to be gained from promising to fix something that people don't think is a problem.
The Age
21-05-2025
- Business
- The Age
Victoria has a whopping debt. Jacinta Allan is betting that nobody cares
Symes freely admitted she could have banked some of the windfall gains Victoria received from larger than expected Commonwealth grants but instead decided to spend it. In post-fiscal Victoria, where red is the new black, a treasurer's preference to spend rather than save is claimed as a virtue. Independent economist Saul Eslake likens this to Symes flipping the bird to anyone concerned about Victoria's financial situation. He also points out that Victoria posting an operating surplus is a meaningless milestone on what appears to be a very distant path to fiscal repair. Before it can start paying down debt, the Victorian government must return the budget to cash surplus. This means, it must generate more revenue than the money it spends on both recurrent expenditure and capital investments. This is the measure the federal government uses when it declares a budget in surplus or deficit. According to this measure, the Victorian Labor government has not delivered a proper surplus since its first budget handed down 11 years ago and there is no prospect it will deliver one in the forseeable future. Tuesday's budget forecasts that the government will finish the current financial year $19 billion short and the four years of the budget period will chalk up a further $38.5 billion in losses. This is why the debt is forecast to rise from $155.5 billion this year to $194 billion in 2028-29. Before it can start paying down debt, the Victorian government must also be convinced this is something it actually needs to do. Why would they think this? They have run up debt to previously unimagined levels and won three elections along the way. Like a recovering alcoholic in denial, the government has set out a five-step strategy for recovery but has no plans to stop drinking. The government reckons it can stay on the sauce and keep functioning as a reliable provider of public services. Now for the caveats. The cost of Victoria's debt is starting to bite. We can see this in delayed government commitments to delivering important services, like full funding of public schools under the Gonski reforms, and promised capital works. We can see it in the weight of inefficient, state-based taxes layered onto business and property owners who pay more to operate in Victoria than they would in another state. We can see it in the fast rising cost of interest. When the state's annual interest bill reaches $10.6 billion in 2028-29, the government will be paying more to service debt than next year's total $8.2 billion appropriations for the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing. In other words, more public money will go to servicing debt than providing social services. The flip side of this is Victoria will next year pay its interest bill and provide $18.9 billion to education and $17 billion for health and parents will no longer have to use their own money to top up their kids' myki cards. On these measures, the joint hardly feels broke. The clear message from this budget is that stonking great debt is now a permanent feature of Victoria's finances and voters shouldn't be at all bothered by this. The anodyne choice of title for the budget papers – 'Focused on What Matters Most' – also gives license to look away from things that don't. Loading The challenge for the Victorian opposition, and particularly shadow treasurer James Newbury, is to convince enough people that debt matters too. He will begin this argument next week when he delivers his budget reply speech and to win it, will require cogency not readily associated with the Victorian Liberal Party. Newbury's first task is to reconnect in voters' minds the causal relationship between rising debt and taxes and the squeeze this ultimately places on government services. There is little to be gained from promising to fix something that people don't think is a problem.
