Kim Carr (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research) Share this | Hansard source

On the second point, I can give a guarantee. I think the last budget demonstrated the extraordinary contributions that have been made to support higher education—notwithstanding the 11 years of neglect we had from the other side of the chamber and the fact that Australia is one of the few OECD countries that actually saw a decline in spending in comparison to our international competitors. The senator asked me what the basis is on which the 11,000 new places have been provided. They were provided on the basis of an election commitment. They were provided on the basis of the funding arrangements that were produced as a result of the data reported through the DEST financial collections, which indicated that public universities received approximately $105 million revenue direct from domestic undergraduate fee-paying students in 2006. That was the basis of the calculation—that was the last available information that was published, and included employer reserved summer school places, which are excluded from this current measure. (Time expired)