Topics: Same-sex marriage, Gonskis reforms and Opinion Polls
Kieran Gilbert:
This is AM Agenda thanks for your company. Joining me now from Melbourne is the Shadow Parliamentary for Small Business Scott Ryan and the Parliamentary Secretary for the Prime Minister Andrew Leigh, here in the Canberra studio. You heard what Senator Brandis had to say Andrew Leigh, about Kevin Rudd, that this is all about him and not same-sex marriage what do you say to that?
Andrew Leigh:
Well Kieran it’s pretty clear that views on this have shifted and shifted pretty markedly. We’ve seen just over recent months, same-sex marriage become law in New Zealand and Britain because conservative leaders have allowed their party room to vote the way they wanted to. If Mr Abbott will do that in Australia, we will bring the vote back…
Kieran Gilbert:
…but particularly about Kevin Rudd, that this is more about him not the issue?
Andrew Leigh:
Look, Kevin is a backbencher he’s entitled to his views and he articulated them well.
Kieran Gilbert:
Senator Ryan on the prospect of any change, what Andrew Leigh points out there is correct. There’s got to be a change in the Coalition formally to allow a conscience vote if there’s going to be any legislative change?
Scott Ryan:
Well I’m not going to be lectured about a conscience vote by a member of the Labor party. It’s a special occasion when a member of the Labor party gets to display their own conscience, which is something every Liberal party member has always been able to do. We had a discussion in the party room about this recently and any future decisions are a matter for the party room but our view is clear, we support the Marriage Act as it currently stands.
Kieran Gilbert:
And Kevin Rudd will coincidently hold a press conference at 9.30am this morning in Brisbane and we’ll have the news conference live for you when it happens. On the issue of school funding Senator Ryan it really comes down to the projected growth rate in the indexed funding for State schools. Tell me it’s all very complex but the Federal Government is pointing to the numbers provided by the Department and Treasury, surely we have got to rely on that?
Scott Ryan:
Well no we don’t actually because we’ve learnt that we can’t rely on numbers in Labor Treasurer’s Budgets, particularly in the last few years. What is clear is that they have cut over $300 million from education, they’ve cut just under $3 billion from higher education and they are saying that in 2018/19 they will put some of it back. Now that is up to three elections away, we can’t trust Julia Gillard’s Budget and Wayne Swan from week to week on this on the Budget, as we learnt in the weeks leading up to it. You can’t take money off people in the next four years and promise to give it back to them in years five and six, three elections away and be taken seriously.
Kieran Gilbert:
Andrew Leigh, the point that Christopher Pyne made as well yesterday was that you look at the last decade and the growth in State school funding was six per cent, now if that’s the record over the last 10 years, why is there now this assumption that it will be half that figure?
Andrew Leigh:
Because Kieran State Governments have changed and we now have more conservative Premiers and they have cuts-agenda. Their making big cuts to their school funding and the way our formula works is indexed to what the State’s spent. I don’t think that’s a particularly sensible formula and I think that’s why we put in place the Gonski reforms, it’s why we want to fix this system, but the fact is when States and Territories cut their spending Commonwealth spending automatically comes down and so the projections going out are not this six per cent growth, there now down to four and projected to fall lower still. So this cuts-agenda that’s in place at a State and Territory level automatically feeds in to and cuts Commonwealth funding, unless you change the system.
Kieran Gilbert:
Senator Ryan, do you feel comfortable with the suggestion that Barry O’Farrell has been conned by one of the most senior Liberals in the country and you’ve got your colleagues saying he’s been conned that he’s been duped?
Scott Ryan:
Well I think what’s clear is that Labor are trying to con the entire country. A week after the Budget now and we know that they’ve halved the indexation rate, it’s been reduced from the papers they released only six months ago and all in an attempt to make the proposed increase outside the Budget period in 2018/19 look bigger. The Coalition has got a track record in school funding, we’ve funded growth in State schools and we’ve funded growth in parental choice and gave that funding to independent and non-Government schools.
Kieran Gilbert:
Well I suppose Andrew that the point Senator Ryan alluded to there, is why has it halved in the space of six months since October when the mid-year Budget update was delivered?
Andrew Leigh:
Significant cut-backs by the State and Territory Governments are the simple answer to that Kieran.
Kieran Gilbert:
But you’re now saying that it’s going to be the case for the next six years. It just seems to be a big, big assumption?
Andrew Leigh:
Look Scott is running here with hyperventilating hyperbole which assumes there’s some grand conspiracy occurring in Treasury. The Treasury officials who put these projections together are the some capable Treasury officials who worked for the Howard Government. They are putting their best estimates of what’s going to happen to funding unless we fix this broken model, unless we put back in what amounts to $1 million per school.
Kieran Gilbert:
And Senator Ryan, if the States do sign-up that does make your position more difficult, obviously only NSW has singed-up but if Victoria, QLD and WA do eventually sign-up before the June deadline it does change, well it’s a game changer isn’t it?
Scott Ryan:
We’ve said we will support an national school funding model if it’s a national school funding model and you remember back in the days of a Howard Government, David Kemp went to a great deal of trouble to make sure non-government schools, particularly in the Catholic system, singed-up to the national school funding model the Howard Government introduced. We’re not going to have a hotchpotch of mechanisms around the country. Andrew there makes what Peter Garrett did earlier just another series of excuses, they have been caught out halving the indexation rate and of course now they just have to find someone to blame and they blame the State Governments. These are not numbers that Australian parents can trust and they are not numbers we believe that those who run our schools, Government and non-Government, should trust.
Kieran Gilbert:
We’ve only got a minute left on the program. I want to look quickly at the analysis in the Financial Review on the Nielsen Poll which suggests the Coalition could likely have control of the Senate after the election as well. That would be a concerning prospect for you Andrew Leigh?
Andrew Leigh:
Kieran you know I pay no attention to polls and there’s good science behind that but Australians will have a clear choice come September. They’ll have a choice between the nation building reforms of Labor. Disability care, important schools reform which will see big increases in funding for every school or Tony Abbott’s agenda of savage cuts including 20,000 public servants, cutting out income support he said he’s going to do that, cutting back on superannuation, reducing probably never increasing superannuation.
Kieran Gilbert:
Scott Ryan, 20 seconds your final thoughts on that?
Scott Ryan:
Look polls don’t change what the Coalition is going to do between now and September 14. We have a plan to improve Australia but we know we’ve got to convince people and earn their trust. So the only thing Andrew and I might agree on is that the polls aren’t actually going to change what we do for the next 116 odd days.
Andrew Leigh:
There are many things we agree on Scott.
Kieran Gilbert:
Gentleman thanks for your time and I’m sure there are. We will get to those on another date and morning. That’s all for AM Agenda the latest Sky News is next.
(Ends)