What Abbott wanted to do

In a recent edition in the stogie old English conservative rag The Spectator ex-PM Tony Abbott wrote a grovelling story about how wonderful English PM Cameron is. In his tribute to fellow conservative, Abbott let out the true desires of himself and Pyne when it comes to education.

So far, his government has transformed education by, in effect, privatising public schools; tackled the culture of welfare by ensuring that people are always better off in work than out of it; and halved the deficit inherited from Labour ... 

They believed and still believe that public education should be privatised. Luckily the slightly less reactionary members of his team dumped Abbott before he could do any more damage and Pyne was removed from education after achieving nothing over 2 years. 

Pyne's replacement is more pragmatic but not much better and Turnbull is not going to restore the $30 billion removed from state education let alone go the full Gonski. Public education is still under attack and it is important to recognise the motives of those attacking it and what they really want to do to the public education system.