Ms Julie Bishop (Curtin, Liberal Party, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Women's Issues) Share this | Hansard source

The budget highlights the government’s commitment to education. It builds on what we already have achieved and it is investing significant funds into education, but all that we announced in this year’s budget is only possible due to the Howard government’s management of our economy.

This is the government that has provided real opportunities for young Australians. The unemployment rate is at 4.4 per cent. That is the lowest rate since 1974. In my own state of Western Australia it is at 2.7 per cent. Young people have an opportunity to get a job under the Howard government. Real wages have increased by close to 20 per cent. Importantly, we have now paid back Labor’s $96 billion debt. That means the Australian government no longer has to find close to $9 billion each year to fund the interest payments on that $96 billion debt. This sort of funding can go to schools, universities, roads and health.

Labor’s contention today is that we have failed to deliver for future generations. When Labor were at the helm, more than one million Australians were unemployed. When Labor were at the helm, the highest number of eligible applicants for university—100,000 eligible students—missed out on a place. You could not get a job and you could not get into university. Labor took hope away from millions of Australians. And all through this, the member for Perth was the economics adviser to then Prime Minister Paul Keating. He oversaw failed policy after failed policy. The member for Perth was part of the team that gave the Australian people the ‘recession we had to have’. What opportunities were Labor providing then? What was their long-term plan for the future? All we got from Labor was budget deficits and government debt. Labor would not know a budget surplus if it jumped up and bit them. It is breathtaking hypocrisy for Labor to talk about future prosperity and long-term planning for this nation. Labor’s only long-term plan was to mortgage the future of the country and leave a debt for others to pay off.

Labor’s record on education is weak and flimsy. Sure, they stole the phrase from Mark Latham, but they promised an education revolution. It has turned out to be just hot air. The Australian people will never forget that the member for Perth and the Leader of the Opposition are the authors of ‘noodle nation’. Who could forget this discredited and confusing policy? Noodle nation was all the work of the Leader of the Opposition and the member for Perth. Labor are the party that announced the schools hit list policy. In its first iteration, this policy would have cut $520 million in funding from 178 schools in Australia representing 160,000 students. This is what Labor in government does to education. The Deputy Speaker might be interested to know that Labor’s hit list policy lives on. The Leader of the Opposition has tried to walk away from the list, but his current position still sees the opposition winding back expenditure on Catholic and independent schools.

We ought to know what the Leader of the Opposition is like on education policy and we can have a glimpse of this. Professor Ken Wiltshire, who was appointed by the Leader of the Opposition when he was in the Queensland Public Service to advise on education issues, described the implementation of the proposed reforms by the Leader of the Opposition as ‘shoddy’. He confirmed that the Leader of the Opposition caved in to the teachers unions and failed to implement key reforms to improve school standards. I think it is important for Australian families to know Labor’s record. Do not listen to what they say; watch what they actually do. Labor’s record shows that they will not stand up to the unions and they will not make the hard decisions to improve standards in schools to ensure young Australians receive the best possible education.

We have seen from the Leader of the Opposition a couple of half-baked, uncosted education policies. One of their harebrained ideas was to align all school holidays across the country. This was immediately discredited by business and the tourism industry: it would cost jobs and it would create chaos on the roads and in the air when all the families went on holiday at the same time. Then they dropped it. Labor are policy frauds. And it continues today. Labor are all over the shop on full fee paying places. One minute they are going to abolish full fee paying places, then they are going to allow them, then they are going to leave the door open, then they are going to decide in the lead-up to the election. The university sector and students deserve to know Labor’s policy on this now.

Tough decisions are required in government. Labor continue to walk on both sides of the street on so many issues. We have seen them say one thing to business on industrial relations and then do the exact opposite when they are told to by the unions. In education they will promise schools, parents and families one thing but do exactly the opposite when they are told to by the education unions.

Only the Howard government has been able to lock in the gains that we have made over the last 11 years and realise the potential of this country. The budget is an example of this. The Treasurer deserves to be proud of what he announced on Tuesday night: an extra $3.5 billion in funding for schools and universities, real reforms and an endowment fund for universities for the future. It has been extremely well received by parents, teachers, business and, most importantly, the education sector. Let me give you some examples of the responses. The Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry said:

This is the education budget the business community was looking for. The government gets an A for its education and training reforms.

The President of the Australian Vice-Chancellors Committee said:

It is fantastic. It is just a really great outcome for the sector and far beyond our expectations. The three areas I’ve been arguing for have all been met. Increased dollars per student, student support was met, and in the case of capital works and buildings fund, that $5 billion more than meets our expectations and so it is a spectacular outcome for the university sector.

That is not me saying that; that is not the Treasurer. It is the head of the Vice-Chancellors Committee. According to the Australian:

The universities’ Group of Eight chairman Glyn Davis last night hailed the higher education spending as a major breakthrough. “This package will be hugely welcomed by the university sector,” said Professor Davis, who is vice-chancellor of the University of Melbourne.

The vice-chancellor of Sydney university, Gavin Brown, said:

We really do welcome the endowment fund initiative.

The Vice-Chancellor of the University of Queensland, John Hay, said:

I was delighted to see the endowment fund was set up, and the initial $5 billion is very welcome.

Vice-Chancellor Alan Robson from the University of Western Australia said:

I am pleased to see assistance for students, particularly for young people doing postgraduate degrees, and grant assistance for mature students, and more Commonwealth learning scholarships.

The Vice-Chancellor of RMIT University, Margaret Gardner, said:

As a package, what it says is it is important that we invest in education. This is our future, and that is a positive.

The University of Tasmania, according to the Launceston Examiner, ‘has reacted with glee to the federal government’s budget. Vice-Chancellor Darryl Le Grew said the university was thrilled with increased recurrent funding of up to 10 per cent and the establishment of a $5 billion infrastructure endowment fund.’ According to the Age:

The response from Swinburne University vice-chancellor Ian Young was typical. He said the changes assured a “visionary investment” in the future of Australian higher education: “It is a massive step forward in accommodating the needs of universities and students now and in the future.”

But what was Labor’s response? In the face of overwhelming enthusiasm for the Australian government’s budget, Labor’s reaction was typically surly and typically churlish. The member for Perth said it ‘wasn’t enough’ and Labor ‘would do more’. Oh, no, Labor would never do more, because the endowment fund comes from a budget surplus. The Labor Party operate budget deficits. The Labor Party would not know a budget surplus. The last time the Labor Party were in government, they ran up a massive $96 billion debt. We had to find $9 billion, as I said, to pay off the interest. They left us with a $10 billion budget deficit. You cannot create an endowment fund of $5 billion out of a budget deficit.

The only threat to the endowment fund is a Labor government. They have already shown that they will raid the Future Fund. They would raid this endowment fund and they would not be able to produce a budget surplus so that we could put more money into the endowment fund. The Australian government, the Howard government, has already committed to putting future budget surplus amounts into the endowment fund.

Since coming to office 11 years ago the Howard government have provided strong leadership on education. We have provided record funding to schools: a 118 per cent increase in funding for state government schools alone—and these are state government schools that are meant to be funded, managed and run by state governments. We have provided record funding to universities. It is an increase of 26 per cent in real terms since 1996. These budget measures mean there will be a further 10 per cent increase for the higher education sector over the next three or four years.

This government is building on the reforms of Minister Kemp when he focused on the need to improve literacy and numeracy standards in our schools. It is building on the reforms of Minister Brendan Nelson in the higher education sector. The 2004 Backing Australia’s Future package has made the sector better off by more than $11 billion over a decade and now this budget invests a further $3.5 billion in schools and universities and a $5 billion endowment fund.

We are committed to choice in education. The Howard government believe that education is the fundamental, essential and enduring building block upon which we can build a prosperous economy and a very strong, secure nation. That is why education, science and training were the centrepiece of this year’s budget. It is the largest budget for the Education, Science and Training portfolio in our nation’s history. It reflects the Howard government’s commitment to the future prosperity and the security of this country. But this is only possible due to the economic management of the Howard government.

As I said, a centrepiece of the federal budget was the higher education endowment fund. That is going to provide an ongoing perpetual growth fund for our universities. We have been able to put in $5 billion from the budget surplus of this year and we are going to make further contributions. The fund will be invested. The projected dividend to be distributed is based on a very conservative estimate of a six per cent return, but even that would provide over $900 million for universities over three years from 2008. Some experts are predicting that the fund could return maybe 10 or 12 per cent. That would be an enormous investment in universities with billions of dollars flowing to the sector.

What the member for Perth omits—or perhaps he does not understand higher education policy—is that the Australian government already commit significant funds to capital works and research infrastructure. The endowment fund will provide more funding, but we already commit funding to capital works and research infrastructure for our universities. Last year we provided $600 million in funding for our universities for capital programs and research infrastructure. The member for Perth refers to the ANU needing $125 million for a new medical school. Last year the Commonwealth provided $54 million for that project. We have already invested $54 million, and now we have this endowment fund for universities to be able to apply for more funding for capital and research infrastructure.

One of the great things about the endowment fund is that it will also encourage public philanthropic investment, as donations to the fund will be tax deductible. This single unprecedented initiative will chart the future course of universities in this country for the 21st century.

We know that Labor will want to steal from the Future Fund. We know that they cannot produce surpluses. All the while, the Howard government is investing in higher education. But also we have implemented a range of reforms that will assist our universities. We have increased the number of Commonwealth scholarships so that over 12,000 scholarships will be available every year. We have increased the number of Commonwealth supported places so that virtually every eligible student in this country can find a Commonwealth supported place at university.

We have also increased the capacity for students to support themselves while they are at university. We have extended rent assistance to Austudy recipients. That means about 11,000 students aged over 25 will get rent assistance. For the first time, we have extended the eligibility of youth allowance and Austudy to students undertaking master’s degrees by coursework. So, under the Howard government, we have seen a massive increase in funding for places. There are now more students at university than at any time in our history. We have delivered a budget package that will give our universities the freedom, the flexibility and the funding to become world-class institutions for decades to come.

I want the phrase ‘Australian universities’ to be a byword for excellence on an international scale. This budget opens up a new era for our universities, with the first wave of reforms to support the efforts of the university sector to diversify, to specialise and to respond to labour market trends. The Howard government has a strong record on providing Australians with choice and opportunity in education. (Time expired)

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