Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Hasluck for her question. Of course, I do wait every day to be asked a question by the shadow minister for education, but it never happens. The Marcel Marceau of Australian politics, he still cannot quite work his way out of that imaginary glass box. But one of these days we might see him actually spring out to the dispatch box and ask a question.

The member for Hasluck has asked an important question about the future of this nation and what was delivered for productivity in last night’s budget delivered by the Treasurer. Productivity is a concept that the Liberal Party has never understood. It never understood that you needed a fair and balanced workplace relations system to deliver productivity and it never understood that you need a world-class education system now so that we can have productivity, participation and prosperity in the future. Our government, the Rudd Labor government, is committed to delivering a new era for our education system: the education revolution that we promised the Australian people. An important thing to recognise in this budget is this is a government that delivered what it promised at the last election. Across the suite of education—from the education of our smallest children in preschool through to our university system, through schools, through vocational education and training—this is a government that is delivering on its commitments. That was a foreign concept to the former government, which, of course, invented the terminology ‘non-core promise’.

This is a government that takes its promises seriously and is delivering them through this budget. I do not have the time to take you through every education measure in this budget but it is important to recognise that the earliest education of our youngest children—where the world research undoubtedly says that if you can invest in the education of children between the ages of zero and five it is the most prudent sort of investment—is an area where Australia, courtesy of the Howard government, radically underperforms by world standards. In this area, in this budget, the government has committed $2.4 billion to early childhood education and care initiatives, including our commitment to universal preschool for all children in the year before schooling.

And, of course, this budget delivers on the substantial investments we want to make in schools: on our digital education revolution, our trades training package, national curriculum, Asian languages—and the list goes on. This is a budget that invests in the future of Australian schooling. It is a budget that assists families, through the education tax rebate, to enable families to have some assistance to afford that expenditure that they want to make to facilitate their child’s education. So whether it is with broadband at home or a textbook at home, there is relief for working families with the education tax rebate. Then, in vocational education and training, this is a budget that delivers on the government’s promise to address the skills crisis left to it by the inaction and neglect of the former government. It is a skills crisis entirely of its making, on the watch of the Leader of the Opposition and the Deputy Leader of the Opposition, because they did not invest in skills.

This budget delivers on the government’s promises to bring on 450,000 new training places within the next four years to enable that investment in skills and to make sure that people have the skills they need to be in work and be able to progress in work. We are investing in the skills and future of the Australian community. And, in universities, we have not only delivered on our promises; we have delivered more. We have delivered on our promises to phase out full-fee-paying places. We have delivered on our promises about scholarships and the like. I understand the opposition think education is boring. They manifested that in government through their neglect and lack of investment. I know they think it is boring. They do not care about education, and that is why their shadow minister never speaks.

Apart from that, we are a government that has not only delivered our promises to universities but delivered more—including a $500 million investment this year in our universities. I am sure the member for Hasluck would be interested to know about the $50 million which will be delivered to Western Australian universities before 30 June this year. I am sure the member for Rockhampton will be interested to know about the $5.5 million to be delivered to Central Queensland University. I am sure that the member for Kingston will be interested to know about the $8.9 million being delivered to Flinders University. I am sure the Tasmanian members of this parliament will be interested to know about the $11.5 million being delivered to the University of Tasmania. And I have no doubt that the member for Lindsay will be interested in the $15.9 million being delivered to the University of Western Sydney—a down payment on making up for the decade of neglect of our university system by the Howard government.

We have also made special provision for educational investments in the future—an $11 billion fund to bring renewal to our higher education institutions and vocational education and training institutions. For the first time ever, this money will be delivered in accordance with a strategic plan. This is a government that believes in the future of universities and charting their course for the next decade, and in the future of our vocational education and training system, and charting its course for the next decade. This stands as a stark contrast to the former government, which used to abuse university academics, micromanage their affairs and impose extreme industrial relations on them. It is a stark contrast to their failure to invest in vocational education and training, which has created today’s skills crisis, putting upwards pressure on inflation and interest rates. This is a budget that lays the foundation stones for the government’s education revolution. It is part of ensuring we have a world-class education system—something valued by every member on this side of the House, and something dismissed as irrelevant by every member on that side of the House.

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