The Turnbull Government has yet again snubbed Catholic school families in the 2018 Budget, Catholic Education Commission of Victoria Ltd (CECV) Executive Director Stephen Elder says.
‘A sandwich and a milkshake tax cut won’t pay for the higher school fees Catholic school families face under Mr Turnbull and Senator Birmingham’s unfair education policies,’ Mr Elder said.
‘The Prime Minister has spent the morning boasting how ordinary Australians will enjoy tax cuts worth around $550 next financial year.
‘His words will mean nothing to the parents of the nearly a quarter of a million students at almost 600 Catholic schools nationwide which are expected to increase their fees this year by at least $550 per student under his bungled and biased education policies.
‘A government that has already broken faith with Catholic parents is saying “trust us” over tax.
‘Australians are already rightly sceptical of promises of tax cuts off in the never-never. They’ve been dudded by both parties; by Paul Keating with his “l-a-w law” commitments in 1993 and Malcolm Fraser’s “fistful of dollars” in the seventies.
‘Now another Malcolm wants us to believe in tax pledges that won’t be fully functioning for over seven years – six budgets and at least two federal elections away.
‘Those “everyday Australians” the Treasurer likes talking about who exercise their choice to send their children to Catholic schools risk seeing their tax cuts swallowed up in fee increases that stem directly from Turnbull Government policies.
‘This is supposedly a pre-election budget, but the parents of the 766,000 students in the 1,750 Catholic schools in the 151 electorates across the nation want to know why the Turnbull Government has deliberately snubbed them, first with an unfair education package that favours some of the wealthiest schools in the country over local parish primaries – and now with tax cuts that same policy will immediately devour.’
Further information: Christian Kerr, 0402 977 352
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