The cat herding underway to secure support for a public schools funding plan perfectly sums up the problem with politics in Australia right now, says the Financial Review’s Phil Coorey.
David and Will podcast on iTunes here.
“I think this is a really good example of just how utterly stupid and mean and dumb politics has become in this country,” Phil told David and Will on FIVEAA. “You’ve got kids funding at stake, but everyone’s so pig-headed and sensitive… it’s probably going to fall in a hole. You wonder why people out there are jaded — this is example A.”
Phil said the wrangling required by the Turnbull government to implement Labor’s own Gonski plan was “stupid”.
“Turnbull stole their policy… and said, ‘We’ll do what Labor wants to do,’ and Labor said no.”
And dealing with the Greens was proving just as hard, according to Phil:
“One of the Greens told me yesterday the union wants Labor to win the next election, so to hell with the school kids. This is how stupid’s it got.
“And there’s people inside the Coalition who don’t want to do a deal with the Greens — even though the Greens are going to give them what they want — because they think it will scare away liberal voters.”
David and Will podcast on iTunes here.
