Kirsten Livermore (Capricornia, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Education) Share this | Hansard source

I want to move on now to the Higher Education Endowment Fund. In question time on 9 May, the minister said the following:

I thank the member for Perth for his question. He obviously does not understand that the endowment fund is on top of what the Australian government already provides universities for capital works and research facilities. Last year alone the Australian government provided over $240 million for capital and $460 million for research facilities. What the Treasurer announced last night is an endowment fund that will be invested, with the income from that endowment fund being distributed to universities on top of what we already fund. This is an unprecedented level of investment in Australian universities. The Australian Labor Party could only dream of such an initiative.

On 16 May the Australian quoted the minister as follows:

·              The minister confirmed it would eventually supersede other capital funding sources such as the Capital Development Pool. ‘I have been concerned that we have in place a number of funds, each with different guidelines and numbers of criteria, and that universities have to put in lots of different applications,’ she said.

·              ‘Over time I would like to see that streamlined’ through the endowment fund, which would have ‘much broader guidelines and much greater flexibility’ than existing mechanisms, Ms Bishop said.

Can the minister confirm which statement is correct? Will the Higher Education Endowment Fund be additional to or replace existing funding arrangements?

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