The federal government has indicated it is open to recalibrating its approach to schools funding, after Catholic educators claimed success in a crucial by-election contest.
The Catholic school sector chalked up a win for itself in the Queensland seat of Longman after campaigning hard against the policy approach of the government, which suffered a bruising defeat.
Education Minister Simon Birmingham was loath to comment on the sector's influence, but was at pains to point out the government had initiated a review into school funding based on concerns raised by the Catholics.
Senator Birmingham received the review earlier this month, and held further discussions with the National Catholic Education Commission and others in the past week.
"We will respond to that in the coming weeks and months, and respond in a way that acts on recommendations to ensure that school funding is fair for every single school sector in Australia," the minister said in Adelaide on Monday.
"We want to get proper feedback from all school sectors before the government responds, but respond and act we will, within the coming weeks and months, to that review, just as we promised we would."
