Peter Garrett (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Minister for School Education, Early Childhood and Youth) Share this | Hansard source

I wish that the shadow spokesperson for education in the coalition was better informed about education matters and policies. In putting this question to me, he has conveniently ignored the fact that the coalition has on the record some $2.8 billion of cuts to education funding. That $2.8 billion cut to education funding is something that the shadow minister himself has confirmed. On Meet the Presson 14 August last year he was asked by Paul Bongiorno:

To be clear, you'll look for savings in your portfolio of education?

And Mr Pyne responded:

Well, we need to have savings across the budget.

I do not think it can be any clearer that it is specifically the goal of the coalition, in order to meet their savings target of some $70 billion, that nearly $3 billion of that will come from education, and the shadow minster is now on the record on that very matter.

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