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

I thank the member for Blair for his question. I know that he, along with other members of the coalition, support the announcement by the Australian government that we will invest $5 billion into an endowment fund for Australia’s universities. This announcement has received widespread support—virtual acclamation—from all vice-chancellors across the country. We have also committed to ensure that this fund grows over time. We will invest more of the budget surpluses over time in this fund so that we have a perpetual growth fund for our universities and so that they can receive potentially billions of dollars for capital works and research infrastructure into the future.

In the face of this universal support for the Higher Education Endowment Fund, what do you think Labor’s response was? Labor was typically churlish. The spokesman on education was out there saying, ‘We could have done that.’ Wrong. Memo to Labor: Labor operates budget deficits. You cannot create an endowment fund out of a budget deficit. Then the member for Perth was out there saying—

See this speech in context