Shorten mounts a public cash call

OPPOSITION Leader Bill Shorten is vowing to fight alongside the parents of state school students for additional funding, while claiming credit for the $ 4.6 billion peace deal with private schools despite first criticising the agreement.

“We’ve won the money for the Catholic sector, now it’s the turn of the state schools to get properly looked after,” Mr Shorten said in Gippsland yesterday. “( Prime Minister Scott) Morrison is playing silly divide- and- conquer political games at the expense of the education of young Australians.”

Earlier in the day, Mr Shorten ( pictured) dismissed the deal struck by Mr Morrison as a quick fix.

“He’s done a patch- up job to keep one group of people happy but he’s ignored all the other government school kids,” he told ABC radio.

“The Government does not have a satisfactory explanation why they’re putting back, reversing the cuts to the nongovernment schools but neglecting public education.”

The Government is granting Catholic and independent schools $ 3.2 billion over 10 years to fund changes to the way parents’ wealth is measured, based on income tax data.

An additional $ 1.2 billion will be spent on Catholic and independent schools as the Government sees fit.

NSW Education Minister Rob Stokes is refusing to ac- cept the “unfair” agreement, which his predecessor Adrian Piccoli has derided as a “pathetic” capitulation to the powerful and well connected.

Mr Stokes, a Liberal like Mr Morrison, believes the Commonwealth is pitting public against private schools.

Victorian Education Minister James Merlino, from the Labor Party, is also filthy about the deal.

However, Mr Morrison is confident the states will warm to the agreement, saying there will be no impact on state school funding arrangements.

“These announcements sit outside of those, and they’re true to what the needs- based funding regime is, to make sure we’re making decisions based on the actual income of parents,” the Prime Minister said.

Finance Minister Mathias Cormann said Canberra did not require the support of the states to increase funding to the Catholic and independent schools sector.

The deal brings to a head months of discussions to end a long- running war over the Gonski 2.0 funding model.