[originaltext]W: Peter Garrett, the School Education Minister, has joined us in

W: Peter Garrett, the School Education Minister, has joined us in the studio now. Welcome.
M: Thanks, Lyndal.
W: What is the government doing to progress the recommendations?
M: We now need to work through those recommendations and see what a proposed funding model would look like. (6/7-1) The fact is that the Gonski funding recommendations were a blueprint but they weren’t complete. If you take something like indigenous loading, they recommended a range of somewhere between 40 and 100 percent on indigenous loading. We need to work that through with states and education authorities to determine what a future funding model would look like.
W: Have you actually committed to the principle of the Gonski Reforms?
M: Well, the principle of a schooling resource standard plus loadings is an extremely positive reform suggestion, but what we need to do is to work through with states what a funding model based on those principles would look like and then agree on it.
W: But it won’t necessarily look like what was outlined in the Gonski Report?
M: Well, I think the key thing about Gonski is that the model is very insightful. But we do need to agree on it with the states and school systems and that’s the work that we’re doing now.
W: There’s been a lot of focus on the funding increase that was recommended in the Gonski Review. You put very little money for Gonski in the Budget. Will the outcome depend on whether or not you can afford to pay for it?
M: We’ve already got about a doubling of funding by the Gillard Government into education. And we’ve provided funding certainty for the non-government school sector while we look at Gonski and the funding reforms.
W: Just to be clear, at this stage it’s more likely than not you’ll have a funding model that looks like some of the things that Gonski recommended and 9-3) you’ll commit to increased funding?
M: Well, on the second question, that’s a matter for the Treasurer and the Cabinet and agreement that we reach around a model. This is the biggest chance that we’ve had to look at school funding in this country for nearly 40 years. We’ve got to get it right and we have to do it in a way which brings together all of the key stakeholders. That’s education state departments and the independent school sector. So they have a role to play.
W: And one final question, Premier of New South Wales, Barry O’Farrell announced yesterday a new model to try and address the low rates of retention in indigenous education, having effectively a super principal who organizes, not only the school, but other services around that. What do you think of his model?
M: Yeah, I think that model has merit and certainly we will provide some support to that model and I think that New South Wales is right to be focusing on how you best get intense effort happening in communities where the school is at the centre of the community, so these kids can succeed. And I’ve announced additional funding for 200 of these schools. We do have to consider these prospects that aboriginal kids have in our schools, we actually get on with the job of giving them the better support they need and I think this should help.
W: Peter Garrett, thank you very much for your time.
6. What do we know about the Gonski funding suggestion?
7. What is the government doing to push forward the reforms?
8. Why doesn’t the funding model look like what was outlined in the Gonski Report?
9. Which of the following is NOT a channel through which the funding model got financed?
10. Why does the interviewee praise the new model announced by Barry O’Farrell?