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The Victorian government will fully fund public schools by 2031, and could get there as early as 2029, after signing a long-called-for agreement with the Commonwealth to meet the state\u2019s Gonski requirements.<\/p>\n
Premier Ben Carroll will on Thursday also announce a major funding boost for Victorian integrity and anti-corruption agencies.<\/p>\n
![\"Premier](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/12bf6f322cff55107509b5a606032c5b9c4f9ad0.jpeg\")
Premier Ben Carroll and Victorian Education Minister Gabrielle Williams have signed an agreement with the Commonwealth for schools funding.Eddie Jim<\/p>\n
Carroll revealed on Wednesday he had delivered on his promise to sign an agreement with the federal government before the November 28 state election to meet the School Resource Standard<\/a> (SRS), the minimum requirement established under the landmark 2012 Gonski review of school funding.<\/p>\n The Age revealed last year that the state government had secretly delayed its promise to fulfil the reforms<\/a> by providing 75 per cent of the SRS matched by 25 per cent from the Commonwealth, from 2028 until 2031.<\/p>\n The delay denied public schools access to $2.4 billion in funding from the earlier start date and left the state and federal governments operating on transitional, yearly funding agreements.<\/p>\n Related Article Victorian Education Minister Gabrielle Williams on Wednesday confirmed a long-term deal had been signed that would include the state meeting full funding for public schools by 2031 and run until 2034.<\/p>\n Though public schools will still have to wait longer than promised, Williams said the agreement had a unique provision saying the state government will seek to bring that funding forward, if possible, to as soon as 2029.<\/p>\n This would rely on Victoria being able to reach its end of the bargain \u2013 75 per cent of the SRS, earlier.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are and will continue to aggressively seek the sorts of budget efficiencies which will enable us to continue to prioritise frontline services,\u201d Williams said.<\/p>\n Over the life of the agreement in its current form, Victoria will spend $13.6 billion while the Commonwealth will spend $2.5 billion.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Details of the agreement published online show most of the additional funding will flow from 2029, with the deal heavily back-ended. Commonwealth funding will reach 25 per cent in 2034, similar to their agreement with New South Wales.<\/p>\n Justin Mullaly, president of the Victorian branch of the Australian Education Union, said the agreement would deliver billions in extra funding, but criticised the delay.<\/p>\n \u201cWe welcome the certainty and increases that the deal provides, but the arrangements confirmed today means Victorian public schools will not receive some of the additional funding as soon as other states and territories,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe delay in signing and the decision to back-end the deal, will shortchange Victorian public schools by hundreds of millions of dollars over the next few years.<\/p>\n \u201cFunding delays have real consequences, and this needs to be addressed.\u201d<\/p>\n In another major funding commitment, Labor on Thursday will announce $139.5 million in additional funding to the Independent Broad-based Anti-Corruption Commission (IBAC), Victorian Ombudsman and Integrity Oversight Victoria.<\/p>\n The boost follows long-awaited reforms to IBAC<\/a> passed last month, which included granting the watchdog broader jurisdiction to investigate corruption, hold public hearings more often and have \u201cfollow-the-money\u201d powers to investigate businesses that receive public money.<\/p>\n Provided over four years, the extra money is locked in and not an election commitment.<\/p>\n Related Article \u201cWe\u2019ve strengthened IBAC\u2019s powers, now we\u2019re providing an immediate uplift in their resources to stamp out corruption,\u201d Special Minister of State Ingrid Stitt said.<\/p>\n \u201cVictorians rightly expect public money to be spent properly; we\u2019re making sure this happens.\u201d<\/p>\n The reforms come after Labor was dogged by allegations of corruption on taxpayer-funded construction sites and allegations of misconduct.<\/p>\n Carroll promised to strengthen IBAC<\/a> in his first press conference as premier in July when he committed to calling a royal commission into the construction sector.<\/p>\n Both IBAC and the Ombudsman earlier this year warned they may have to shelve investigations<\/a> and cut staff after being under-resourced by the state budget.<\/p>\n Integrity advocates, the Greens and former IBAC commissioner Robert Redlich have previously called for IBAC\u2019s budget to be set by parliament, rather than the government.<\/p>\n Start the day with a summary of the day\u2019s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n Save<\/p>\n You have reached your maximum number of saved items.<\/p>\n Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n No gift articles left<\/p>\n You’ve used all of your gift articles. 3 more will become available on the 1st of every month.<\/p>\n Close![\"St](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/e60caacc69897be42adf3a7491c607c06a91acc5.jpeg\")
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Angus Delaney<\/a> is a state political reporter at The Age. Email him at angus.delaney@theage.com.au or contact him securely on Signal at angusdelaney.31Connect via email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"October 22, 2026 \u2014 6:00am Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":936162,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-936161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/936161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=936161"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/936161\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/936162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=936161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=936161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=936161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}