Hard bargaining—Passing Commonwealth schools funding legislation through the Senate—Successful policy but political failure

Abstract This article examines the Turnbull Coalition government's changes to the Commonwealth school funding model, inherited from its Labor predecessor, made by amendments to the Australian Education Act 2013 (Cth) passed in the Senate in June 2017 in terms of McConnell's three dimensions of policy success. By so doing, the case demonstrates both the interplay of policy, process, and political success and the challenges of sustaining successful reform to Australia's complex school funding system. It highlights, for instance, that achieving success in one dimension, such as having a good process or even a viable policy/programme that addresses identifiable problems, can falter if the other dimensions of political success are not also achieved. This is what occurred with the Turnbull government's school funding changes. Consequently, they lacked durability and were further amended very quickly by the subsequent Morrison government, though some parts remained intact. Further, viewing this case study in this way has allowed for the multi‐dimensional nature of doing policy to be understood. It also provides a more realistic delineation of the shared roles between the federal education minister, his office, and the department across all three dimensions of achieving policy success—developing the policy, managing the processes, and dealing with the politics. Points for practitioners Success needs to be seen across the interrelated areas of policy, process, and politics. Success in one domain may not suffice to ensure success in other domains. Developing policy is an iterative process involving ongoing negotiation. Co‐operation is essential between the political (ministerial office) and administrative (department) arms of government concerning goals, processes, and measurement of success. Success is often short‐lived so contingency plans are needed to ‘salvage’ as much as possible from the original policy. Developing lasting reforms is becoming increasingly difficult in the Australian political context. Evidence‐based policy, even when accompanied by legislative enactment, will not alone ensure durable policy success—everything is ‘politics’.