Squiz Today – Wednesday, 3 May

GONSKI ON BOARD FOR NEW SCHOOL FUNDING DEAL

THE SQUIZ
PM Malcolm Turnbull, Education Minister Simon Birmingham and businessman/education-system-reviewer-extraordinaire David Gonski fronted the media yesterday to announce the Coalition’s new approach to funding school education. There are two parts to Gonski 2.0.

1) The feds will make a new arrangement with the state and territory governments and increase their funding by $18.6 billion over the next ten years. Funding will be allocated to schools after a ‘real needs’ assessment.

2) David Gonski will give advice to the government on how to best implement the new funding model to put Australian students back on top of the international tables.

SO, WHY DO I GIVE A GONSKI?
Believe it or not, there was a time not so long ago when ‘Gonski’ didn’t mean #gonski. These days it’s shorthand (with a built in social media campaign) for increased and preferential funding for public school over private schools. Under the former Gillard Labor government, a panel led by David Gonski in 2011 came up with a model based on an ‘objective resourcing standard’. They also recommended that private schools be at least 25% publicly funded. Then politics got involved when Gillard insisted no school should be worse off. Labor have maintained they would fully fund their Gonski reforms (to the tune of almost $40 billion). But Turnbull and Birmingham will argue that they are more closely delivering on the original Gonski vision, but expect this to get lost in the noise about the funding package being smaller than Labor's.  

WHAT DO I TAKE OUT OF THIS?
Four thoughts for you:

1. It's a lot of money to spend when Turnbull’s government said it wouldn’t receive any extra funding.

2. Having David Gonski there = smart politics because of his name association/credibility with all things good in education funding.

3. It is brave (maybe in the Yes Minister sense of the word) to say that some schools will be worse off – not an easy thing to do in our ‘no losers’ political environment.

4. And they’ve bought themselves a fight – even with friends - by reopening the schools funding debate. One of the first out of the blocks to express concern was the NSW Education Minister Rob Stokes, a Liberal.

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SQUIZ THE REST

DOUBT ABOUT SAINSBURY'S DRUG STORY
Accused of being a drug mule, Adelaide woman Cassie Sainsbury has her doubters. Colombian authorities and those claiming knowledge of how local drug rings work just don’t buy she didn’t know what was in the packages. Doubt at home too (we’re a cynical lot) after it was revealed she isn’t a personal trainer and hasn’t been a volunteer firefighter for three years. You can just imagine the social media comments… Colombian authorities said yesterday they were tipped off about Sainsbury by America’s Drug Enforcement Agency and released pictures of her arrest – sad viewing.

GOVERNMENT TO FUND SYDNEY’S SECOND AIRPORT
Sydney Airport Corporation yesterday confirmed they do not want to build Sydney’s second airport as it does not meet their ‘investment risk profile’. The airport they operate at Mascot is said to be one of the most expensive in the world (as anyone who has parked there knows) so they may have a high bar for returns. Instead, Badgerys Creek airport to be located in Western Sydney will be taxpayer funded to the tune of $5-6 billion. And then there’s the question of funding for rail links to the city. There's bipartisan support for the airport (speaking of unicorns…), and shadow minister Anthony Albanese expressed confidence the private sector would be keen to operate the facility once built. 

WOOLIES OUTPACES COLES ON SALES
Woolworths Supermarkets reported yesterday that it outpaced Coles on comparable sales for the January to March quarter. Woolies grew sales by 5.6% compared to Coles 0.8% for the period. It’s the second time in a row, but keep in mind Coles beat Woolworths 29 quarters in a row before that. Woolies cautioned the market on how much of that will convert into profit given they are investing heavily in reducing prices to stay competitive. BIG W was a wet blanket, it is projected to lose up to $135 million for the company between January and June this year. Keep in mind every major superannuation fund invests in Woolworths and Coles parent, Wesfarmers, so we are pretty much all investors too.

CHRISTENSEN HAS SURGERY FOR WEIGHT LOSS
Controversial conservative Queensland MP George Christensen has undergone surgery to remove 85% of his stomach in a bid to get his weight under control. He said his weight got up to almost 176kg when he should be at about 80kg. He urged younger people to do something about their weight sooner rather than later if it was an issue as he found it became a big problem over time.

MET GALA DIALS UP THE WACKY
The fashion world makes little sense to most of us a majority of the time - but never more so than at the Met Gala in New York. The streets of the Big Apple's Upper East Side were momentarily overtaken yesterday by loads of beautiful people wearing ridiculous outfits. Locally, we were ably repped in the silly clothes stakes by Miranda Kerr, Hugh Jackman and Deborra-Lee Furness, Ruby Rose and Rupert's daughters Grace and Chloe Murdoch (they're sort of half Aussie, aren't they?). It's hard to pick a winner in the ludicrous frock department - there were just so many to choose from. Apparently the theme was an homage to Comme des Garcons designer Rei Kawakubo (who did not attend). But seriously, if you can discern the theme in this photo gallery, you're a better person than us.

SQUIZ THE DAY

12.30pm - NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian to address the National Press Club

ABS Data Release - Selected Living Cost Indexes 

World Press Freedom Day

10th anniversary of 4yo British girl Madeleine McCann's disappearance