Plans to slug 457 visa holders for sending their children to West Australian public schools are still being thrashed out, with criteria for financial hardship provisions yet to be decided.
The WA government has already been forced to water down the contentious plan, which was first revealed in the August budget and would have cost temporary workers $ 4000 a year for each child.
But after a backlash over the budget-boosting measure, the charges were last week pushed back a year to 2015 and halved to $ 2000 a year for second and subsequent children.
While the Liberal-led government said there would be provisions to take into account financial hardship, they have not yet been decided upon, Education Minister Peter Collier told a budget estimates hearings on Tuesday.
The scheme was originally expected to rake in $ 120 million over four years from more than 8000 students, but that number has since been revised down to about 4500, and is now anticipated to bring in less than $ 60 million.
Asked what role his department had in developing those initial figures, the minister replied: “None”.
While the government still believed 457 visa holders needed to contribute to the cost of their child’s education, Mr Collier conceded the original $ 4000 fee “was perhaps too severe”.
“And that’s why we made the changes.”
The funds would not be funnelled into education, the hearing was told, and instead would go to Treasury.
Mr Collier defended a 30 per cent funding cut to the School Support Program Resource Allocation, which provides funding for special programs, such as literacy and numeracy.
“We’re not decimating the funding of schools – yes, we’re asking schools to be a little constrained in terms of what they can provide,” he said.
When opposition education spokeswoman Sue Ellery asked if he could promise no child would miss out on the programs, the minister replied: “We have never been able to guarantee those sorts of outcomes”.
“Having said that, it’s up to schools to make a determination – it is supplementary funding.”
