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Christopher Pyne Slams 'Dishonest' Catholic Schools Campaign

'I am quite disappointed with the Catholic education system.'
He's not impressed.
Getty Images
He's not impressed.

Leader of the House Christopher Pyne has blasted the National Catholic Education Commission for running a dishonest school funding campaign.

Speaking to Sky News, the MP said that he has not received a single phone call, email, letter or personal visit from anyone in his electorate regarding the funding cuts announced by the Government as part of this year's budget.

"The Catholic education system, really, is running a very dishonest campaign. They are getting an extra billion dollars out of this agreement," he said on Sunday.

"I am quite disappointed in the Catholic education system nationally for running a campaign, using their parents' money, that is dishonest and is trying to keep in place a system which is not fair to all Australians."

These comments follow the Catholic system launching a campaign to combat the Gonski 2.0 reforms. The Weekend Australian reported on Saturday that every state and diocese in the Catholic education system voted in favour of the new funding campaign.

The National Catholic Education Commission claims that the funding cuts will rip money from schools and students who are in need. They also claim that lower funding will place extra financial stress on working parents, and those sending their children to low to ­medium fee Catholic parish schools. The Commission predicts fee hikes of about $5000 from as early as next year.

Regardless of this, Mr. Pyne maintains that the government is simply following the recommendations of David Gonski and his team, which are backed by fair treatment and equal funding for all schools in Australia.

"We have removed those advantages and disadvantages that were inherent in Labor's system and smoothed out the fairness across Australia," he said.

"It is a fair system. Every school is treated the same way, every student is being treated the same way."

It is still unknown how successful the National Catholic Education Commissions' campaign will be.

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