Kerry Nettle (NSW, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

The Treasurer is trying to convince people to believe that last night he announced money for education. The Higher Education Endowment Fund is not money for education; it is education money being put into the bank. The $5 billion put into the Higher Education Endowment Fund should have been spent on education and on students. If you look at the budget papers you will see that the proposal sets aside $300 million per annum to be shared between 38 universities for capital works. That is not investing money in education.

This government, and therefore this country, is way below the OECD average for government spending on education. In fact, this government needs to invest $7 billion per annum in education just to get to the average for OECD countries. Yet, last night, $5 billion—supposedly for education—was put into the bank rather than invested in education. It is there in the bank. The budget statements say that there is $300 million to be shared between 38 universities for capital works. Last year’s budget had an announcement of $310 million per annum to be spent at universities on capital development and research infrastructure. Does the $300 million in last night’s announcement replace the $310 million in last year’s budget? The government needs to answer this question. The government said, ‘Here is our big expenditure on capital works—$300 million per annum, shared between 38 universities.’ Last year it announced more than that. Does this replace that?