We are now in the third week of a five-week election campaign period, and as the 2025 Federal Election approaches on 3 May, Catholic Education has released a Federal Election Scorecard to highlight where political parties and key independent candidates stand on issues of importance for Catholic schools.
The scorecard has been developed for families and staff to easily identify the education policies and commitments of the Australian Labor Party, the Liberal National Coalition, the Australian Greens, and key independent candidates on five key areas: funding certainty, support for faith-based schools, sector-neutrality, addressing disadvantage, and early childhood education.
While the major parties largely support our priorities, the Greens received a clear ❌ from us because they leave Catholic schools isolated and excluded from their policy commitments.
Their focus is on public schools alone, and their proposed policies to further top-up public school funding will adversely affect Catholic schools in real terms.
The Greens’ announcement of free lunches for public school kids costing $11.6 billion over the next three years, is the latest example of their ongoing failure to recognise the character of the Australian school education system.
They’ve failed to acknowledge Catholic school families in their cost-of-living proposals — assuming only public school families are doing it tough, which is untrue and unfair.
The Greens have also consistently advocated and voted against Catholic schools having the ability to preference and employ staff who support the Catholic ethos, despite strong and growing public support for faith-based schools.
I encourage you to read and share the scorecard with Catholic school families and staff so our communities can be as informed as possible on polling day.
Jacinta Collins
Executive Director
National Catholic Education Commission