States are demanding an extra $12 billion from the federal government in public school funding over the next decade as education ministers vow not to back down from a united front against a Commonwealth they are accusing of shortchanging students.
Victorian Deputy Premier Ben Carroll said the federal government was proposing conditions that would burden teachers with more administrative duties and reduce their time with students, while his NSW counterpart Prue Car invoked the state’s massive GST shortfall in demanding more money.
Education Minister Jason Clare is facing a united front of state ministers demanding more public school funding. Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
NSW, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania and the ACT have rejected Federal Education Minister Jason Clare’s offer to increase federal funding of public schools by 2.5 per cent, instead calling for a 5 per cent rise, escalating rows that have also erupted over the National Disability Insurance Scheme and infrastructure funding.
In a stalemate before a crucial meeting in Perth on Friday, Carroll said he stood with his state colleagues across the country “to fight for a better deal that won’t leave our public school students and staff behind”.
Continue reading about funding here.
Working Australians suffered the biggest increase in average tax rates in the developed world with the end of the low- and middle-income tax offset and bracket creep, just as an unusual mix of petrol, cooking oil, bread and insurance combined to drive up the cost of living.
Data released today by the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, as part of its annual snapshot of global personal income tax systems, revealed Australians endured a 7.6 per cent increase in their average tax rates in 2023.
Australians suffered the biggest increase in tax burden in the developed world last year as bracket creep and the end of a tax offset combined. Credit: Jim Davies
The second-largest increase in the developed world, of 4.5 per cent, was experienced in New Zealand.
Single people on two-thirds of the average income, about $67,000, are now paying 20.2 per cent of their wage in tax, a 17 per cent jump on their tax burden in 2022.
It is the highest tax hit on this group since the early 2000s.
Here’s the latest on the tax increases.
The northern Gaza Strip is still heading toward a famine, according to the deputy UN food chief said.
World Food Program deputy executive director Carl Skau has appealed for greater volume and diversity of aid to be allowed into the enclave, and for Israel to allow direct access.
Israel pledged three weeks ago to improve aid access, including reopening Erez and allowing the use of Ashdod port.
The move came after U.S. President Joe Biden demanded steps to alleviate the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, saying the U.S. could place conditions on support if Israel did not act.
Gazans queue for food in the city of Rafah.
The World Food Program says the overwhelming majority of Gaza’s residents have insecure food supplies.
Credit: Getty
“We certainly welcome those commitments and some of them have been partly implemented.
Some remain to be implemented,” Skau said, adding that for WFP there had been an “uptick” in getting aid in and some progress in accessing northern Gaza.
“But it’s far from enough. We need volume and we need diversity of goods and we really need consistency,” he said.
“We’re still heading towards a famine (in the north).”
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said last week that Israel’s commitments to improve aid access in the Gaza Strip had so far had limited and sometimes no impact.
A UN-backed report published in March said famine was imminent and likely by May in northern Gaza and could spread across the enclave of 2.3 million people by July.
Reuters
Good morning, and thanks for your company.
It’s Friday, April 26.
I’m Caroline Schelle , and I’ll be steering our live coverage for the first half of the day.
Here’s what’s making news this morning:
The bishop allegedly stabbed in a Sydney church uploaded an 11-minute statement to YouTube saying he is not opposed to the video of his stabbing remaining on social media .
Bracket creep and the end of the low- and middle-income offset have whacked Australians with the biggest tax hike in the developed world as inflation surged, OECD data shows.
After two days climbing the muddy path through the mountains of PNG, Anthony Albanese and the PNG prime minister marked the dawn service at the Isurava battlefield memorial.
States are accusing the federal government of shortchanging students as they seek a 5 per cent increase in school funding from the Commonwealth.
More than 100 nests of potentially deadly fire ants have been discovered on Defence land in the Murray Darling river system.
And overseas, New York’s highest court has overturned Harvey Weinstein’s 2020 rape conviction.
