Gillard's deal on Gonski a case of better late than never Things are somehow different way out west. Such is the binary nature of politics that Abbott's unvarnished displeasure betrayed the full extent of Gillard's achievement. So much so that Tony Abbott, visiting Geraldton in the secessionist state on Tuesday, constructed his own pretend reality from which he was able to simultaneously attack Julia Gillard for: (a) never achieving anything; (b) actually achieving something (albeit a deal with "one state") with her signature education reforms; and (c) bribing NSW Liberal Premier Barry O'Farrell with extra cash ("enormous promises of money, money, and more money") to get him over the line. And what of O'Farrell himself, Abbott's (annoyingly) co-operative NSW Liberal confrere? Well, he was just doing what he felt (poor naive fellow) was in the best interests of his state. In truth, Abbott, who addressed reporters at the same time Gillard and O'Farrell fronted the media in Sydney, was caught out by Gillard's education breakthrough. For a moment it seemed old "one-trick Tony" was back. Not that her achievement is likely to change Gillard's fortunes overnight. Rather, it was a case of better late than never. For a self-proclaimed education Prime Minister, last week's Council of Australian Governments non-result on her Gonski-inspired school education funding package was something of a black eye. But luckily for a Prime Minister not accustomed to the cards falling her way, the keenest embarrassment was fairly short-lived. O'Farrell's foresight was to grab the cash first - almost $5 billion over six years in his case - and thus take the credit for putting education in the Premier State first. Indeed, he's had to delay some business tax breaks in order to stump up his $1.7 billion end of the bargain, so it hardly comes without pain. Gillard hopes fervently that the NSW example will prompt other states to quickly come on board. She has some reason for confidence because - friction from Queensland's Campbell Newman and Victoria's Denis Napthine notwithstanding - the main in-principle objections to the $14.5 billion overall plan have come from Western Australia and the Northern Territory. Those states may be lost causes. Gillard wisely gave herself an escape route before last Friday's COAG meeting by giving the states a deadline of June 30 to secure the agreements. She now looks like she is making good progress towards that goal. With its central tenet of the school resource standard as well as loadings for disadvantage, Gillard believes the school funding reforms are "historic" and will be her enduring legacy. While the carbon price, the mining tax and even the national broadband network face obliteration or at least severe compromise if Labor is defeated at the federal election in September, the formal agreement between states and Canberra to entrench long-term funding based on a per-student standard presents the closest thing to serious, lasting reform that the government has implemented. It will take more than one state to make it a national agreement and it will take more than one win to prompt a Labor revival. But then, you have to start somewhere and sound policy is rarely a bad place to begin.