Media Release | 30 May 2025
Liam Staltari MLA
Shadow Minister for Education;
Early Childhood; Disability Services; Heritage
The Cook Labor Government is trying to shift more than $36 million from a trust account dedicated to funding public schools into State Government coffers, according to Shadow Education Minister Liam Staltari.
The Public Education Endowment Repeal Bill 2025, which is being debated in the Legislative Assembly, will repeal the Public Education Endowment Act 1909 – winding up the Public Education Endowment Trust (the trust) and transferring its assets into the State Government’s consolidated revenue, with no requirement that the funds be reinvested in WA public schools.
The trust, established to support public education via the sale of land endowments, holds approximately $13 million in cash and a landholding in Fremantle – known as the ‘Knutsford land’ – which is a prime residential location between Swanbourne Street and Amherst Street in Fremantle.
The Government has valued this land at $6.85 million. However, since the Bill’s introduction, the Auditor General’s State Government 2023-24 Financial Audit Results have revealed that the land has been independently valued at $26.9 million for the independent lots, or $23.4 million for the amalgamated lots.
This new valuation nearly doubles the previously understood value of the endowment – bringing its total value to over $36 million. The Government has claimed that these assets are “not a viable mechanism to supplement funding for education.
Mr Staltari slammed that claim and called on the Cook Labor Government to direct those funds to the purpose it was set aside for – public education.
“Ask any teacher, principal or parent in our public schools what even a portion of $36 million will do for their school, and they will tell you – it could be transformational,” he said.
“For decades, this endowment has been intended for one purpose and one purpose only: funding public education. The Cook Labor Government’s attempt to roll these funds into its central coffers will break that promise and leave no guarantee that these funds will go to our public schools.
“The Government needs to come clean about what it will do with these funds. Will they be put towards its Burswood racetrack?”
Mr Staltari said that when the Bill was first introduced, the State Government argued that the assets were too small to be of use to public education.
“We now know that’s simply not true – this Government intends to pocket the assets with no strings attached,” he said.
“The Opposition will introduce amendments in Parliament which will ensure these assets go to exactly where they are always intended – our public schools.
ENDS
Media Contact: Graham Mason – 0419 194 792
