Fairness sacrificed, says Shadow Education Minister

The Turnbull Government has sacrificed fairness for consistency, federal Shadow Education Minister Tanya Plibersek told Federation’s May Council meeting on Saturday.

Ms Plibersek was referring to the Turnbull Government policy of uniformly contributing 20 per cent of its schools funding to public schools.

“To say it is somehow fairer to put an artificial cap on the portion of funding that you will give to public school students, that’s fair?” Ms Plibersek asked.

She reiterated that a federal Labor government would restore the Coalition’s $17 billion cuts to schools funding over a decade.

Ms Plibersek said Labor wants to make sure the TAFE system is as strong, well-resourced and regarded by parents and students as the university system.

“What guts me is that TAFE is weaker than it’s been in a long time,” she commented.

A Labor government would immediately restore the $600 million cut from TAFE in the 2017 federal Budget, plus spend $100 million on a TAFE rebuilding fund, Ms Plibersek stated.

The restoration of union representation on the board of Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership and Labor’s pledge to spend $280 million over 10 years on an institute to evaluate school education practices were also covered in Ms Plibersek’s speech.