Stuart Robert has said he does not know where the education minister Alan Tudge is, and bizarrely claimed to have been doing Tudge’s job for “almost 12 months”.
The acting education minister’s comments more than double his actual time in the job, five months, an error the Coalition attempted to cover up with a transcript claiming Robert had said “a number of months”.
Robert’s comments on ABC News Breakfast further muddy the waters about Tudge’s role in the government.
Tudge stood aside as education minister in December pending an investigation into allegations made by his former media adviser Rachelle Miller about her relationship with him in 2017. Tudge has denied the allegations.
In March the government released a report finding there was insufficient evidence Tudge had breached ministerial standards. But Tudge nevertheless said he had “requested not to be returned to the frontbench before the election”.
In April, education officials revealed that Tudge was still the minister. When Scott Morrison called the election later in April, he revealed Tudge was also still in cabinet.
On Thursday, Robert told ABC News Breakfast: “Well, I’m the acting education minister, Lisa, and have been for almost 12 months. So I’ve got full authority in terms of running the education portfolio, as well as skills and workplace and the other things that I do.”
Robert has been acting education minister since 2 December, just over five months.
The transcript circulated by the Coalition claimed Robert had said: “I am the acting education minister … and have been for a number of months.”
A video posted to social media by ABC News Breakfast confirms he said “12 months”.
"I don't know where he is..."
— News Breakfast (@BreakfastNews) May 4, 2022
"I'm not across those issues..."
Acting Education Minister @stuartrobertmp when pushed on the whereabouts of Education Minister @AlanTudgeMP, and a $500,000 payment to one of his former staffers. pic.twitter.com/z2FYnYYAuk
A Liberal campaign spokesman said “minister Robert misspoke and that was corrected in the transcript”.
Asked where Tudge was, Robert replied: “I suggest in his electorate.”
“I don’t know where he is. I tend not to keep track of my colleagues’ whereabouts.”
On Wednesday, Morrison confirmed that Tudge was the education minister and “if he’s prepared, if he’s available to come back into the ministry [after the election], then he will”.
The government has refused to explain a settlement with Miller reported to be worth at least $500,000, despite the former staffer offering to release officials from any obligations of confidentiality so that they can answer public questions about the deal.
Robert said he was “not across” the settlement, which was “dealt with by the Department of Finance, very much at arm’s length from anyone, certainly at arm’s length from me”.
Robert reiterated that he was “not across what the legalities are” about commenting on the settlement.
Earlier, Robert said the government was seeking to fix Australia’s declining international ranking on school test scores, which has slipped from fourth to 16th in reading since 2003, from eighth to 17th in science, and from 11th to 29th in maths.
Robert said that it was “clear that the extra funding isn’t the answer” because public school funding had increased over that period.
“We need to address the issues of curriculum which we’re doing, teacher quality in terms of initial teacher education, and, of course, the classroom environment.”
In March, Robert caused controversy by telling a conference of independent schools that they did not accept “dud teachers”, but sent the “bottom 10% of teachers dragging the chain” into the government system, where they were protected from being fired.
