Peter Costello (Higgins, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

I am sorry, there are traps for middle-aged players. I have heard this being recounted on radio over and over again. Let me put the facts on the table. Australian government expenditure on education has increased by 38 per cent in real terms from 1996 to 2007. What the honourable member for Lilley has been unable to fathom, and the Prime Minister explained it to him in the answer to the last question on this, is that Austudy was absorbed into Youth Allowance in the 1998-99 budget and thereafter Austudy—which was about $1.5 billion and had previously been classified as an education outlay—was classified as family and community services outlay. If you add in that $1.4 billion that moved classifications then in fact you do not get that decline at all. A modicum of research would have actually disclosed this to the opposition. But the opposition is not worried about research; the opposition is more worried about tomorrow’s headline.

See this speech in context