Labor has failed to explain its key education policies and has admitted to not costing billions of dollars' worth of promises.
Minister for Education and Early Learning Sarah Mitchell expressed concerns over Shadow Education Spokesperson Prue Car's inability to answer basic questions on Labor's key education policies.
"Labor's key election promise is scrapping the public sector wages cap, and they have just admitted that they have not costed it," Ms Mitchell said.
"This leaves parents in the dark about what will be cut from their child's education so that Chris Minns can give a blank cheque to union bosses."
Labor has also failed to articulate the cost breakdown of their other key promise, a four-year $400 million Education Future Fund.
"Prue Car was simply asked to detail the breakdown of their fund, which she could not do – nor could she confirm a single policy it would deliver," Ms Mitchell said.
"Parents are being told this promise will somehow fund schools, while providing free tutoring for all students, more school counsellors, and more teachers, however Labor has no detail on how this will be achieved.
"It is completely unacceptable that Labor is not able to detail their key promises and their costs to the people of NSW, Chris Minns needs to tell parents what their families would miss out on under Labor.
"Under a Liberal and Nationals Government, parents have certainty and students have a brighter future."
The Coalition has a costed and funded plan for students from their first step to their first job, including:
Coalition's promises |
Labor's promises |
A $15.9 billion Early Years Commitment including: · $5.8 billion to deliver Univeral Pre-Kindergarten for every child in the year before school in NSW, giving families access to a free, quality play-based early learning program, up to five days a week. · $5 billion in the Childcare and Economic Opportunity Fund to increase the number of affordable childcare places in NSW · $1.3 billion in Affordable Preschool fee relief, saving families up to $4,220 this year alone. · $376.5 million Brighter Beginnings program bringing a full suite of health and development checks to NSW preschools and more wrap around support for children and families in the critical first 2000 days of life. · $281.6 million workforce package to attract, retain and retrain the early childhood workforce. |
100 uncosted public preschools and $60 million for 50 private preschools. |
A guaranteed 6% pay rise for teachers over the next two years, and a $100 million commitment to pay excellent teachers salaries of up to $152,000. |
No detail and no costings from Labor. |
$8.6 billion over the next four years for hundreds of new and upgraded schools. |
A handful of underfunded projects in key Labor seats. |
$200 million to rollout a once-in-a-generation back-to-basics school curriculum that puts literacy and numeracy first for all students. |
No plan for lifting student outcomes. |
A $250 million tutoring program to support up to 120,000 students in 2023, bringing the total to $890 million invested in tutoring since 2021. |
Cut by $200 million under Labor, meaning up to 100,000 kids could miss out. |
11,000 teachers and 4,000 support staff already being offered permanent roles in 2023. |
Labor has only committed to 10,000 temporary teachers to permanent. |
A dedicated program to reduce teacher admin burden that has saved teachers more than 50 hours and is hiring hundreds of administrative staff in schools. |
Labor have promised an "audit" of Department policies. |
