Page 1132 - Week 05 - Tuesday, 29 May 2007
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My time has run out, but there is no doubt that all Australians are better off thanks to the Howard government and the budget that has been presented.
MR BARR (Molonglo—Minister for Education and Training, Minister for Planning, Minister for Tourism, Sport and Recreation, Minister for Industrial Relations) (4.56): I thank Mrs Burke for raising this important matter today. Looking at the overall impact of the 2007-08 federal budget, I think the one clear impact that the Howard government was hoping for would be as recorded by a number of institutions such as Newspoll, Morgan, Galaxy and AC Nielsen. When you assess the impact as measured by those organisations, it is perhaps not as the federal government might have wanted.
It is undoubtedly the case that, as the election nears, the current 20-point gap between the parties will narrow. We will probably see—as we traditionally do in Australian elections—an outcome somewhere along the lines of 51-49 by the end. Those on this side of the house are hoping that the mood for change that is clearly there—and has just been, perhaps belatedly, picked up by the federal government—will continue. The efforts that they put forward in the federal budget were interesting.
Despite the temptation to be broad ranging, I will restrict my comments to the education and tourism portfolios. There were a number of quite welcome initiatives in the budget. The interesting thing is why they have taken so long to deliver. It is fascinating that in last year’s budget education rated one mention—one. Now, in his 11th or 12th budget, the Treasurer decides that he wants to do a lap of honour on education—wants to devote a considerable part of his speech to education. There has been 11 years of neglect in that portfolio—11 years of neglect. It has not been a priority for the federal government. It has not invested in the economic wellbeing of our country through our education system.
Let me give a classic example. The Howard government has promised Queanbeyan an Australian technical college. It has completely overlooked the ACT. We do not mind. We are very proud of the VET programs that are run in our high schools and colleges. But those opposite like to tell us how much help we have received from the Howard government. They should remember that Canberra was overlooked for an Australian technical college, though it does seem that it was possible to help our friends over the border. Queanbeyan sits in a marginal seat. Funny that, isn’t it? Perhaps we should not be too upset, though, because Queanbeyan is still waiting for its technical college.
It is worth looking at the funding for education overall. Education spending has fallen from 7.7 per cent of total spending in the 2005-06 budget to 7.4 per cent in the outyears through to 2010-11. Overall investment in education in Australia is now 5.8 per cent of GDP. We are 18th in the OECD. Our public investment in tertiary education in universities and TAFE has declined by 7 per cent over the period of the Howard government’s term in office, compared with a massive 48 per cent increase by our OECD competitors. Despite all of the new measures in the budget, funding for education as a proportion of GDP has declined from 2 per cent when the Howard government took office in 1995-96 to 1.6 per cent in 2007-08. It is of great concern that over a decade we have seen such a decline in funding for education.
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