John Birmingham writes in the Brisbane Times (23.6.15):
‘Usually the debate about public funding of schools revolves around the taxes taken from the working poor and delivered to the middle class and the super elites in the form of grants to wealthy private schools.
‘It’s a fraught and complicated matter for discourse because of the great sacrifices many people who are not wealthy make to send their children to private schools.
‘With one grand sweeping move, however, all that discourse has been swept aside. Instead the debate moves now from whether there should be any state funding of private schools to whether there should be any state funding of state schools. The private schools, of course, won’t lose a cent. In fact they stand to gain billions. I always thought Abbott was a bit dim. I’m beginning to think he might be an evil genius.’