Marise Payne (NSW, Liberal Party, Minister for Human Services) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Carr for his supplementary question. If we do again go back to estimates—and a number of us were there for an extended period of time—the sorts of figures that Senator Carr is using and was using on that occasion were addressed by senior officers of the department, including the secretary, to explain why they were not necessarily an accurate representation of the position that Senator Carr is putting. That explanation was extremely detailed. It is on the Hansard from the estimates period, and I personally, as did my colleagues, valued the effort put in by the senior officers to explain those particular issues.

We actually believe in the transformational power of higher education. We actually believe that in pursuing these reforms we will be able to provide around $37 billion in funding to higher education institutions over the next four financial years. We think that is an important contribution and we do not resile from that.