Education Minister Simon Birmingham.Credit:Alex Ellinghausen
The schism over school funding was a factor in some of the unrest leading to this week's upheaval. Liberal MP Tony Pasin,who supported Peter Dutton,told Fairfax Media on Saturday:"We need to resolve it as soon as practicable."
It is understood Senator Birmingham is keen to remain in the portfolio and will tell Mr Morrison he is best placed to quickly strike a deal with the various school sectors and sign agreements with the states - which were due to be finalised at an Education Council meeting in a few weeks.
He is also open to a change of role,and a new minister would have a clean slate with Catholic sector administrators in Victoria,who have waged a bitter and personal war against the South Australian.
But the National Catholic Education Commission,whose negotiators met with Senator Birmingham as recently as Monday to nail down data related to the Chaney review,gave him the tick of approval.
"We've been working with him and we're going to continue working with him,"said spokesman Jim Hanna on Saturday."It's not about personalities. We just want to get the best outcome with whoever is the minister on the day."
Geoff Newcombe,chief executive of the Association of Independent Schools of NSW,said Senator Birmingham had"shown great determination and integrity in trying to put in place a fair funding model that applies consistently to all non-government schools. We look forward to continuing to work with him on this important issue."