John Howard (Bennelong, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I see. To start with it was 7.5 and 7.4, but that 7.5 and 7.4 was not a percentage of GDP. It was not an attempt to compare education spending from one year to the next; rather, they were percentages of aggregate government spending and made no allowance for the fact that expenditure in other areas may have increased at an even faster rate than education—such as expenditure on defence and expenditure on family benefits.

I would like the member for Lilley to leave question time with a feeling of tranquillity and peace about the subject of education. I will quote from Budget Paper No. 1. It reads as follows, and I invite the member for Lilley and the member for Griffith to listen to this:

Total expenses under the education function are estimated to increase by 9.0 per cent in real terms from 2007-08 to 2010-11, or 3.4 per cent annually on average. The major drivers of this growth are the significant new measures for schools and universities announced in the 2007-08 Budget ...

This is specifically on the point that I know worries the member for Lilley; I know he worries about this. It goes on to say:

Higher education funding is estimated to rise by about 9.7 per cent in real terms from 2007-08 to 2010-11 or 3.7 per cent annually on average.

All I can conclude is that the Leader of the Opposition is being trickier than usual with his figures. The truth is that we have had an education revolution. The truth is that on the centrepiece—

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