Gonski bus campaign to fight Malcolm Turnbull’s cuts

The AEU’s “I Give a Gonski” Campaign will launch a national bus tour in Adelaide and Brisbane today to highlight the great results Gonski funding is delivering to schools and the threat to students from Malcolm Turnbull’s plan to scrap Gonski after this year.

The Adelaide bus will be launched by South Australian Premier Jay Weatherill, and the Brisbane bus by Queensland Education Minister Kate Jones.

AEU Federal President Correna Haythorpe said Gonski needs-based funding was turning students’ lives around, but Malcolm Turnbull was ignoring the evidence of its success.

“Malcolm Turnbull wants to get rid of Gonski after 2017 and stop funding schools based on need. This would deny schools across Australia $3.8 billion in extra funding, and mean many schools would never get the resources they need to provide support for all their students.” Ms Haythorpe said.

“We know Gonski funding is working and schools in South Australia are using it to benefit students through greater one-to-one support, targeted literacy and numeracy programs and smaller classes.

“The only reason Malcolm Turnbull ignores the evidence Gonski is working is because he does not care about the children who need help the most.

Malcolm Turnbull can find $50 billion for a corporate tax cut but he can’t find a fraction of that funding to ensure SA children get the support they need at school.

“If Malcolm Turnbull fails to deliver Gonski funding in full he is failing our kids.

“That’s why we are stepping up our campaign. As well as our national bus tour we will be running national TV, radio and digital advertising in March calling on Malcolm Turnbull to abandon his cuts to Gonski.

“With less than two months until April’s COAG meeting, Malcolm Turnbull has failed to produce a single concrete proposal, let alone tell any state or territory government how their schools will be funded and whether they will get more or less money.

Malcolm Turnbull needs to listen to the States and abandon his plan to scrap Gonski. He needs to support our schools by honouring the full six years of the Gonski agreements.

The buses will travel across SA, Victoria, Queensland and NSW, visiting schools and local communities to tell them the importance of funding Gonski before arriving in Canberra on March 22nd.