Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

In terms of dealing practically with the challenges Australia faces for its economy and its long-term future, education is front and centre. If you go to our response to the economic challenges of today, they come at, at least, two or three levels. One level is our approach of responsible economic management to deal with global economic circumstances, anchored in a strong budget surplus, in order to put downward pressure on inflation and interest rates. And, coming off the back of 10 interest rate rises in a row, that is a responsible, prudent course of action, as opposed to that advocated by those opposite. That is one level of response.

The second, of course, is to make sure that we are investing in this economy’s long-term future. Our long-term future as an economy depends on how we generate long-term productivity growth. We know from the data that productivity growth has been slowing in recent years, and we know for a fact that the absence of investment in skills, education and training, together with an absence of investment in infrastructure, have been among the main drivers in the supply-side constraints in the economy which have put, in fact, upward pressure on inflation and interest rates in recent years—the subject of 20 consecutive warnings from the Reserve Bank of Australia to those opposite when they were in office and about which they did nothing.

By contrast, this government has a clear-cut course of action. When it comes to education, our course of action is this. We, through the budget, have outlined our fiscal intent to lay aside $11 billion in an education investment fund—

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