Better and Fairer Schools Agreement - Department Meetings with Victorian Counterparts

Question

Senator KOVACIC: On 24 January 2025, the Prime Minister and the Premier of Victoria, Jacinta Allan, along with the education ministers, made an announcement which I'll read out. I referenced this in last estimates as well. The announcement reads: The Albanese Labor Government and Allan Labor Government have come to an historic agreement that will put all public schools in Victoria on a path to full and fair funding. ..... This will lift the Commonwealth's contribution from 20 per cent to 25 per cent of the SRS by 2034. This will see around an estimated $2.5 billion in additional Commonwealth funding to Victorian public schools over the next 10 years. When I raised this in December last year you said you expected the Victorian bilateral to be signed shortly and that we did have the stopgap agreement, which expires in December of this year, which is now some six or seven months away. On 12 February, Ms Brighton gave evidence that the negotiations would start again in February; that's my understanding. In response to the question as to whether the expectation is that it would happen in the next few months-Ms Brighton, you indicated that that was your expectation. Can the department provide any update on the status of the Victorian bilateral funding agreement for me? Ms Brighton: Certainly. We have continued to meet with Victorian officials in the negotiations. I think our cadence is around fortnightly. So the next meeting with Victorian officials is next week. We are still working on having a new bilateral agreement signed this year, in the next couple of months, so I'm optimistic about that happening. The stopgap-to use your language, Senator-bilateral does expire at the end of the year, and we would like to get the new agreement locked in place well in advance of that. So that's what our negotiations are focused on. Senator KOVACIC: Are you able to tell me, either now or on notice, how many times and on what dates the department has met with Victorian counterparts-I know that you're saying it's almost a fortnightly cadence-to negotiate that bilateral agreement? Ms Brighton: Certainly. We can take that on notice; I don't have those details with me today.

Answer

Please see the attached PDF.

Documents

• Question with answer (PDF) (opens in a new tab)
• SQ26-000677.pdf (opens in a new tab)