Outcry over new private school funding plan

SCHOOL FUNDING RULES

New South Wales Education Minister Rob Stokes has hit out at the federal government’s new $4.6 billion funding model for private schools, announcing that the state government will reject any policy that fails the Gonski model’s “needs-based and sector-blind” priorities.

The Sydney Morning Herald reports that the Coalition’s $1.2 billion “choice and accessibility fund” and separate $3.4 billion injection were aimed at placating the Catholic school sector following Gonski 2.0 model changes. Specifically, the sector wanted to maintain lower-fee alternatives to public/independent schools even in wealthier suburbs, which federal Education Minister Dan Tehan has characterised as “a very strong argument that in some cases they do need to be able to offer low-fee offerings because otherwise choice will be taken away from parents”.

However, Stokes has warned against both an unequal funding model and restarting private/public funding wars, while both Labor’s education spokesperson Tanya Plibersek and former NSW Nationals education minister Adrian Piccoli have called the $1.2 billion plan a “slush fund”.

CONTRACT QUESTIONED

Labor has flagged it will investigate the outsourcing of Australia’s visa processing systems at next month’s Senate estimates hearings.

The Australian ($) reports that shadow immigration minister Shayne Neumann has specifically questioned a bid for the $1 billion visa processing contract from Liberal Party powerbroker Scott Briggs. Neumann has highlighted Briggs’ personal connection to political allies Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Immigration Minister David Coleman, while also citing broader staffing, national security and privacy concerns over the program.

Elsewhere, Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton survived a no-confidence motion over the au pair saga 68-67, Morrison has knocked back a plea from the Australian Medical Association to evacuate suicidal children on Nauru, and, for related reasons, Australia has fallen down a global index of “social progress” for the second year in a row.

POISON LE PEN

French far-right politician Marine Le Pen has rejected a court order to undergo psychiatric testing for an investigation into her tweeting images of Islamic State executions.

The ABC reports that Le Pen, who tweeted the graphic content in 2015 but was only investigated in March after her parliamentary immunity was lifted, is currently under suspicion of disseminating violent images. However, she has refused a psychiatric exam and likened the order to totalitarianism, while adding that she would “like to see how the judge would try and force me do it”.

[free_worm]

THEY REALLY SAID THAT?

The only thing that happens as a result of not having that COAG meeting is that less Tim Tams will be consumed in Canberra that week.

Scott Morrison

The current Prime Minister defends bailing on the states and, in a sense, his job.

CRIKEY QUICKIE: THE BEST OF YESTERDAY

Politicians only complain about Murdoch’s influence after they quitBernard Keane

“There’s a loose historical rule of the thumb that one of the rare occasions when power structures are properly exposed is when there’s an internal conflict within them. This is when it becomes in the interests of those within to either reveal what’s really going on, or ally with forces outside in their own interests.”

Pauline Hanson and the rise of the ‘anti-white racism’ narrativeKishor Napier-Raman

“Real racism is a country where Indigenous Australians die 10 years younger than non-Indigenous Australians, where bipartisan refugee policies leave children traumatised in tropical gulags. It is regular blackface incidents, like minstrel-show cartoons going viral for all the wrong reasons, and the mob-like bullying of those people of colour uppity enough to dare question the existence of such racism in the first place.”

How Collingwood became the most hated team in the AFLDavid Latham

“Sonny Liston once said, ‘A prizefight is like a cowboy movie. There has to be a good guy and a bad guy. People pay money to see me lose. Only in my cowboy movie, the bad guy always wins’. Collingwood is the AFL equivalent of Liston, destined to always play the bad guy in the theatre of football. But how did Collingwood end up being the most reviled (and, by its fans, the most intensely loved) football club in the land?”

READ ALL ABOUT IT

How reef funds went from $5 million to nearly $500 million in five days

Tasmania’s House of Assembly passes anti-consorting laws

ABC may face Senate heat after Stokes denial ($)

It’s time for Taiwan to act on refugee protection

Reserve Bank bounces back into the black with $3.8bn profit

Melbourne is one of the fastest-growing cities in the developed world

Bid to beat China to PNG domestic internet cable ($)

Northbridge pubs and clubs to stay loud

Massive state government report dump: Here’s what we found ($)

A very Australian coup: Murdoch, Turnbull and the power of News Corp

Banking royal commission report will crimp mortgage credit: Citi and UBS ($)

Kim wants second summit with Trump, South Korea President says

THE COMMENTARIAT

Morrison’s bid for religious freedom looks like legislated homophobia — Catherine McGregor (Sydney Morning Herald): “Forgive my cynicism, but the Prime Minister needs to clarify just what he believes freedom of religion entails. Until he produces draft legislation one can only infer that his concern at infringement of religious freedom is confined to the rage among the ‘base’ at same-sex marriage. I doubt he or the zealots among his base will have much stomach for ‘activist judges’ interpreting the Commonwealth’s attempts to legislate in this area.”

Ex-PM Malcom’s revisionist history ($) — Sharri Markson (The Daily Telegraph): “The unvarnished facts show Turnbull’s downfall had less to do with backrooms and billionaires and more to do with his own deficient judgment, which led to the majority of his party room deserting him as leader. Lest Turnbull’s acolytes at the ABC succeed in historical revisionism, here is the reality check — he was overthrown as leader because of the Longman by-election result, his signature energy ­policy and a firm view among Liberal MPs that the party was unelectable with him as leader.

If Bowraville appeal fails, other paths to justice remain open ($) — Chris Merritt (The Australian): “Mark Speakman deserves praise for the measured manner in which he is seeking justice for the bereaved families of the town of Bowraville. Speakman, the NSW Attorney-General, seems determined to exhaust every possible avenue within the justice system before resorting to legislation that would, hopefully, clear the way for a new trial for a man who has been cleared of the Bowraville murders.

WHAT’S ON TODAY

Canberra

• Three parliamentary committees will hold hearings throughout the day: a House inquiry into the growing presence of inauthentic Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander style art and craft products and merchandise for sale across Australia; a joint inquiry into the “Operation and effectiveness of the Franchising Code of Conduct”; and a Senate inquiry into the Great Barrier Reef Foundation’s $443.4m grant, with witnesses to include the CSIRO, the Wilderness Society, the Australian Academy of Science, the Australian Institute of Marine Science, and representatives from the Departments of Finance; Treasury; Industry, Innovation and Science; and Environment and Energy.

• The Australian War Memorial will launch the Napier Waller Art Prize with director Brendan Nelson, assistant director national Major-General Brian Dawson AM CSC (Ret’d), and curator Toni Bailey.

• The National Library of Australia will launch major international exhibition, “Cook and the Pacific”.

• Day one of the three-day, multi-Asian-cultural festival Canberra Moon Festival.

Hobart

• Tasmania’s legislative council will hold public hearings into the state’s acute health services, with submissions expected from the College of Emergency Nursing and Rural Doctors Association of Tasmania.

• A Property Council and Tourism Industry Council Tasmania event will include the release of Tasmania’s first ‘Hotel Development Outlook’ report and a presentation from Deloitte Tourism specialist Adele Labine-Romain.

Melbourne

• The financial services royal commission’s insurance hearing will wraps up by questioning Insurance Council of Australia CEO Robert Whelan and Financial Services Council CEO Sally Loane on the regulation of the general and life insurance industries.

• Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack will address the Rural Press Club.

• Melbourne Museum, in full collaboration with The Nelson Mandela Foundation of South Africa, will launch the world premiere of “Mandela My Life: The Official Exhibition”

• Melbourne Town Hall will light up in celebration of Dementia Awareness Month.

• The Royal Melbourne Show will launch a preview event with rock-legend Jimmy Barnes, illusionist Cosentino, and The Royal Agricultural Society of Victoria CEO Paul Guerra.

• St Kilda Town Hall will host the three-day “Living & Loving In Diversity” Australian GLBTIQ Multicultural Council National Conference.

• The State Library of Victoria will hold a media preview of its $88 million redevelopment.

• NBL co-founder and designer Justin Ketselman will launch a fashion range with players Casper Ware Jnr and DJ Kennedy on a basketball-inspired catwalk.

Sale, Victoria

• Federal Labor leader Bill Shorten is expected attend an event marking 20 years since the Longford gas explosion, which killed workers Peter Wilson and John Lowery.

Gold Coast, Queensland

• Surf Life Saving Queensland will release its “2018 Coast Safe Report”, highlighting key drowning trends in Queensland beaches across the past 12 months.

Launceston, Tasmania

• The Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation Tasmanian Branch will protest the Tasmanian Health Minister Michael Ferguson’s claims that he has opened all the beds across the state’s health system.

• Federal Liberal Senator Richard Colbeck and Tasmania’s Minister for Resources Guy Barnett will speak at the inaugural forum of the Tasmanian Forests and Forest Products Network.

Sydney

• Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi will launch the new anthology book “Wrong Way: How Privatisation & Economic Reform Backfired”, edited by Damien Cahill and Phillip Toner, at Gleebooks.

• The Disrupt.Sydney conference will be held at the University of Sydney on the theme of “Robots against the Machine?” and will feature a keynote from Deloitte Digital founder Pete Williams.

• Benchmark Mineral Intelligence will hold a “World Tour 2018” energy and mineral forum event.

• Fun run and cycling event the Coleman Greig Challenge will raise money to support St Gabriel’s School for special needs, Royal Institute for Deaf and Blind Children, and Westmead Hospital.

Toowoomba, Queensland

• Local Government Minister Stirling Hinchliffe will open the Charlton North Detention Basin stormwater management project.

Brisbane

• Former Prime Minister John Howard will launch his latest book The Art of Persuasion, Selected Speeches 1995 to 2016 at the Australian Institute for Progress.

• The French-Australian Chamber of Commerce & Industry will host seminar event “Waste to Energy: the $2.5 billion infrastructure plan to turn your rubbish into energy”, with Local Government Association of Queensland CEO Greg Hallam and Translink Director of Policy Solutions Charlie Crane.

• Day one of the two-day beer festival, Beer InCider Experience 2018.

• National President and Chair Engineers Australia Trish White will present “Engineering a revolution: from impossible complexity to transformed lives” for an IFE Grand Challenge Lecture at QUT.

• Flood Community of Practice will hold forum event “Resilience of people and places to natural hazards – policy to action?”, with guest speakers expected from state and local governments, Griffith University, SEQWater and Suncorp.

• The Valley Chamber of Commerce will hold an annual business festival.

Adelaide

• The State Library of South Australia will host seminar event, “The Celestial Question: Early Chinese arrivals and settlers”.

Darwin

• The Darwin Waterfront will host a free, two-day mini film festival as part of this year’s Darwin International Film Festival (13-23 September).

• Darwin International Airport departure lounge will turn into a mini oasis “The Green Room” with music from Bridey Rose and a tropical food and drinks menu.

Perth

• Professor and Wesfarmers Chair of Australian History at UWA Jane Lydon will discuss the role of photography in history making in colonial Australia in relation Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery’s new exhibition “Stockyards and Saddles: A story of Gibb River Station”.

• Woodside Energy’s Matt Shaw will present on the industrial use of machine learning for Innovation Central Perth.

Australia

• Opening day of the women’s national cricket league season.

• Today is World Gratitude Day, with Australian events to include a “gratitude wall” erected in Sydney’s Martin Place.

Yangon, Myanmar

• Australian publisher Ross Dunkley will reappear in court on drug charges.

New York, USA

• New York garbage truck driver Felipe Chairez will appear in court over the vehicular death of Australian tourist and cyclist Madison Lyden.