The Australian newspaper outs Federal Education Minister in "Christopher was so tied to the new school funding model we thought his name was Pyneski"

Is the Murdoch media now genuinely in two minds over the Abbott Government or has it decided that mirroring growing public anti-Abbott sentiment will sell newspapers?

Christopher was so tied to the new school funding model we thought his name was Pyneski, 2 December 2013:

THE Coalition was on a unity ticket with Labor on the Gonski reforms -- and then suddenly it wasn't.

Christopher Pyne tells the Australian Mathematical Sciences Institute forum, February 2012:

PARENTS and schools need certainty in funding arrangements. They need to know that their school's funding arrangements won't be prone to sudden change . . . I have seen first-hand just how angry parents and communities get without certainty.

Tony Abbott to reporters, August 2:

WE will honour the agreements that Labor has entered into. We will match the offers that Labor has made . . . but you won't get the strings attached so what I want to say today is that as far as school funding is concerned, Kevin Rudd and I are on a unity ticket.

Pyne's policy launch, August 29:

SO you can vote Liberal or Labor and you'll get exactly the same amount of funding for your school except you'll get $120 million more from (us).

Pyne at News Ltd forum, August 29:

WE have agreed to the government's new school funding model over the forward estimates, because we believe that the debate about funding was becoming something of an asinine distraction from the issues.

Pyne on Radio National, August 30:

WE are committed to the student resource standard; of course we are. We are committed to this new school funding model. It will be up to the states to decide whether they spend their money or not because they are sovereign governments and should be treated like adults.

Pyne, ABC1's 7.30, October 15:

OUR policy, very clearly before the election, was that we would honour the next four years of the school funding agreements.

Asked about a new funding model, Pyne to reporters on Tuesday:

I BELIEVE that the school funding model that was implemented by the Howard government, which was based on the socioeconomic status and qualifications of parents and went to the schools that were most in need, is a good starting point for a school funding model.

Pyne has a change of heart on ABC Radio in Adelaide, Wednesday:

I'VE never said that we'd be reverting to the Howard model, so I don't know where you've got that idea from.

Fran Kelly interviews Pyne on Radio National Breakfast, Tuesday:

KELLY: Kathryn Greiner was a member of the Gonski review panel. She's urging you not to walk away from their recommendations. She's asking if you'd sit down with the panel for a day so they can convince you of the system's benefits. Would you do that?

PYNE: No. I've studied the Gonski model closely.

But Pyne tells the ABC's Matthew Abraham in Adelaide, Wednesday:

ABRAHAM: Chris Pyne, you won't meet with the Gonski panel, I think that's correct, is it?

PYNE: No that's also not correct . . . I mean in this fevered reporting of these matters . . .

ABRAHAM: Or are you just all over the place? Is the media reporting your thought bubbles and you're then having to go around and correct them?

PYNE: No, no that's quite unfair . . . I never said to anybody that I wouldn't meet with the Gonski committee.

The Prime Minister on Ten Network's The Bolt Report yesterday:

ABBOTT: I'm happy to say that under the Coalition schools will get the same quantum of funding over the four years that they would have under Labor had it been re-elected. In fact, they will get a little bit more.

ANDREW BOLT: You just heard me play that promise . . . it was about each school getting the same money for the next four years. Will you repeat that promise? I don't know why you made it then and can't repeat it now?

ABBOTT: Well, I think Christopher said schools would get the same amount of money and schools -- plural -- will get the same amount of money. The quantum will be the same.

Laurie Oakes tells it straight on Pyne, Daily Telegraph, Saturday:

PYNE is still engaging in the moving-target trickery of opposition . . . lies were told before the election and lies are being told now.

UPDATE

The Sydney Morning Herald 2 December 2013:

The Abbott government has reversed its position again on the Gonski education funding, saying it will honour all existing deals for the next four years, and add an extra $1.2 billion into the system.

In a joint press conference held at Parliament House in Canberra, Prime Minister Tony Abbott and Education Minister Christopher Pyne sought to put an end to the damaging headlines about the government's ‘‘broken promise’’ on education.