Tasmania signs up to the Gonski reforms

This article was last updated on April 16, 2022

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Tasmania becomes the first state to sign up to the Gonski reforms after a major change in Labor leadership. Although the school reforms are Labor Party’s top priority, the recent shift of power in the party disrupted negotiations with other states. NSW, the ACT and South Australia have already signed up to the reforms during Ms Julia Gillard’s tenure.

The federal government has promised over $400 million for Tasmanian schools through new reforms – $230 million for government schools, $110 million for Catholic schools and $60 million for independent schools. Premier Lara Giddings agreed to the deal after assurances from the Commonwealth the new money would not affect GST allocations.

“We were ready and wanting to sign up to the better schools plan. This will certainly ensure that if there was to be a change of (federal) government … that Tony Abbott could not damage the public education system in this state,” she said.

According to Federal Education Minister Bill Shorten, the commonwealth would provide $250 million and the Tasmanian government $130 million as part of the six-year deal.

“The Victorian government has got a view though about how the funding should work and we have got to agree on what the numbers actually are. You know, they look at the data and draw one conclusion; we look at the data and draw another.  So it is important that in a negotiation that we have the same set of facts. It’s school holidays, it would be good to see if we could have something to tell parents and kids when they return back from school holidays,” Shorten said.