Senator Simon Birmingham - Adieu a great Liberal reformer!

Simon Birmingham, Liberal Senator from South Australia since 2007 has just announced his retirement from the Senate.

Of the four state and four federal ministers I worked for, Senator Birmingham was one of the best. I worked for him as Senior Adviser (Schools) from when he became Education Minister in September 2015 till when he moved to the Trade portfolio in August 2018. While my views are coloured by that personal experience, I have also watched Simon in his later roles and current opposition shadow Foreign Affairs position.

For reasons that will be clear later, Simon’s resignation is a great loss of experience, political acumen, personal integrity and maturity and genuine commitment to good policy for the Coalition, Australian Government and the nation. And certainly, unlike some of the unfair and inaccurate comments to (but not in) David Penberthy’s article (The Australian 29/11/24), Simon was not a LINO (Liberal In Name Only), unlike Matt Kean, the former NSW Liberal Minister for Energy.

Background

Simon came, like many Liberals, from a modest family background. No private school grooming for him as he attended local state primary and secondary schools. Before entering the Senate in 2007 he had served in several electorate and ministerial staffer roles but had also been Director of the Winemakers’ Federation of Australia.

After the Coalition won office in 2013, Birmingham served as Parliamentary Secretary for the Environment, then Assistant Minister for Education and in 2015 when Turnbull replaced Abbott as PM, was elevated to Cabinet as Education Minister. Under the Morrison Government he moved to Trade and the Finance – all senior roles. Following the defeat of the Coalition in 2022 Dutton made Birmingham, Shadow Foreign Affairs Minister. He was also Leader of the Opposition in the Senate, a reflection of his ability and Dutton’s regard for Birmingham, soft Liberal or not.

Birmingham’s education achievements

Birmingham once said to me that Turnbull allowed him to choose his ministry. Had he known how hard education was to be across higher education, school funding and other sectors he may have chosen differently. It was a never-ending war on all fronts, every day. With few allies, or ones unwilling to publicly support the Coalition, it was a hard and lonely battle. In schools there was a large array of opponents and critics – the teacher unions, state governments even if Liberal ones, like NSW, and the Catholic school sector. The Independent school sector was on side, but sometimes less vocal and emasculated by the self-interest of some its state divisions like NSW.

During Simon’s time as Education Minister many real reforms were achieved. The Phonics Check became Federal Policy and has slowly been adopted by some of the States (SA, NSW and Victoria – but not Queensland) and teacher education reforms were followed through including the new Literacy and Numeracy Test for teacher graduates for all universities. Other real changes were outlined in the Quality Schools, Quality Outcomes document of May 2016.

https://www.education.gov.au/recurrent-funding-schools/resources/quality-schools-quality-outcomes

Under Simon, key outside experts, not left of centre academics, were appointed to senior key education advisory roles. Sometimes these efforts were blackballed by Labor State and Territory vetoes, purely on the ground that they were “pro-phonics”!

Most importantly, Simon initiated the most important changes to Commonwealth school funding model which no previous education minister, Liberal or Labor, or government, Hawke-Keating, Howard, Rudd and Gillard, had achieved. He had inherited a real policy mess

(see his Valedictory speech: https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Hansard/Hansard_Display?bid=chamber/hansards/28077/&sid=0206

It is too complicated to detail here but is outlined in a forthcoming academic article on the whole process of getting those amendments to the AEA through the Senate (Hard Bargaining – passing the Commonwealth School Funding Legislation through the Senate).

In essence, Simon managed to get the Senate to pass amendments to the Australian Education Act 2013 inherited from the Gillard-Rudd government by 34 to 31 votes in June 2017. This involved gaining support from parts of the crossbench and even keeping on side some Liberal Senators who had threatened to vote against these reforms. Those amendments addressed the AEA’s serious flaws of multiple funding models, special deals, and the inconsistent Commonwealth and State funding shares to schools. It highlighted the underfunding by most of the States and Territories to their own public school systems. Simon fixed up the post 2017 school funding arrangements which his immediate predecessor in the Abbott Government had put in the too hard basket. For the first time putting the large (35 per cent of all students) non-government sector, the Catholics and Independents (recipients of some 60 per cent of all federal school funding) on the same level funding playing field, was a major achievement. It is now hardly recognised even by his own side. All previous governments had reneged on their promises to achieve this reform at the first flight of the Archbishops arriving in Canberraland to lobby against the reforms. Simon also at last tackled overfunded private school and sought to link funding to the States to education performance reforms.

Of course, Simon’s reforms meant he fell foul of the Catholic school sector who mounted a vicious political campaign against him and the Turnbull Government.

Today, under the present government, school funding is back to its previous shemozzle, special deals and almost total focus on funding, rather than seeking to implement those reforms that lead to a quality education system.

Birmingham as minister

Perhaps, Birmingham’s greatest achievement was his ingrain integrity. There was no scandal concerning his office. Staff turnover was almost non-existent, testifying to the nature of the Birmingham ministerial working environment.

Significantly, unlike other ministerial offices, there was a good cross-section of staff in terms of experience, maturity, and viewpoints. Open discussion was the name of the game on policy and strategy issues.

Despite the heavy workloads, all staff were committed because their minister set an example. His integrity, calm manner, and considered discussion before action made working in the ‘Birmo’ office a pleasure. Staff understood that their minister knew his stuff and knew his commitments were genuine.

When during the Turnbull leadership crisis of August 2018 when several ministers had resigned, Birmingham had to represent them in Senate question time. After a quick briefing from half a dozen departments, in he went to face the Opposition out for blood – but he handled it so calmly, so professionally, and just so well. When he came back into the office that day we all stood and clapped for his outstanding achievement.

Conclusion

Yes, Birmingham was on the small ‘l’ liberal side of the Liberal Party, the so called ‘progressives’, but that was not reflected inside the ministerial office, where those with a more conservative predilection, were not just tolerated, but respected.

Nor can it be denied that Birmingham was one of the best performers of the Coalition government from 2013-2022.

As shadow Foreign Affairs Minister Birmingham has also been a consistent critic of the Albanese Government and a loyal team player in the Dutton Opposition.

And given the nature of politics you cannot ask more than that.

Birmingham will be missed.