Mr Speaker, investing in education is both an investment in our children’s future, and an investment in the future prosperity if Australia.
Investing in education, skills and training is about preparing Australia for the economic and social challenges that lay ahead.
After a decade of under-investment and neglect by the Howard government, it is Labor that put education back on the national agenda and front and centre of public debate, not John Howard.
Labor has done this Mr Speaker, through its ‘Education Revolution’ platform.
At its core, Labor’s ‘Education Revolution’ platform identifies education as a key building block in securing Australia’s economic future, and it draws on Labor’s long standing commitment to education as one of the most important pathways through which all Australian’s, no matter where they come from, are given the opportunity to start life on an equal footing and to strive for self-betterment.
Mr Speaker, the Australian people know when their government is playing catch up with policies made on the run for short term political gain, and that is precisely what the government’s budget announcements on education amount to.
Whilst education spending has increased on average by 48% among OECD countries, in Australia it has fallen by 7% since John Howard became Prime Minister. Similarly, whereas higher education spending per student has gone up on average by 6% among OECD countries, in Australia it has actually fallen by 6%.
These figures speak for themselves. They clearly delineate the massive gap that exists between words and action when it comes to the Howard government’s abysmal record on education.
And they tell us that any Education Revolution put forward by the Howard government, is an Education Revolution in name only.
Under John Howard’s watch, Australia has tumbled to last place among OECD countries when it comes to investing in early childhood education, and after all the pomp and ceremony of Tuesday’s budget blows over, Australia will still be in last place.
Labor’s Early Childhood Education Plan is a plan to invest in early childhood education in Australia. It will give every 4 year old in Australia the right to 15 hours of early childhood education a week, for up to 40 weeks per year, delivered by a qualified teacher.
In contrast, the Budget provides $700 private tuition vouchers for children who fail to achieve national literacy and numeracy benchmarks in Years 3, 5 and 7.
Mr Speaker, $700 vouchers are not the answer to building an early childhood education framework in Australia. Just how far will $700 dollars really go, and why wait until Grades 3, 5 or 7 before trying to identify potential learning problems?
Rather, the solution is to invest early on in Australia’s education system, to build up its capacity, services and programs, and to avoid the sorts of literacy and numeracy problems the government’s vouchers pretend to fix.
Mr Speaker, the Howard government now claims that it has an education revolution all of its own. But at a time when Australia is experiencing a chronic skills crisis, how can you have an education revolution that side steps Australia’s TAFE colleges’ altogether?
Over the next 5 years, Australia faces a shortage of 200,000 skilled workers. TAFE colleges make up 70% of all vocational education and training in Australia. That is, they play a key roll in skilling up Australia’s future workforce. Yet this budget provides no additional recurrent or infrastructure funding to TAFE colleges.
Labor has also consistently argued for a significant increase in recurrent and infrastructure funding for the higher education sector.
Commonwealth recurrent funding for Australian universities stood at 0.9 % of GDP in 1996. After Tuesday’s budget, recurrent funding to universities will still only make up 0.6% of our GDP.
This gives some indication of how bad the Howard government’s funding record has been over the last decade.
Today, students face a university system where demand for university places far outstrips the number of places actually available. They are faced with rising HECS fees and record levels of HECS debt. In my electorate of Calwell alone, students owe a staggering $58.5 million dollars in HECS debt. After Tuesday’s budget, HECS fees for students studying Accounting, Economics or Commerce will climb even higher, and a 35% cap on full fee paying courses at universities will be abolished.
Will this budget reduce HECS fees? Will it create a more equitable education system? Will it guarantee Australia’s future economic prosperity?
The answer is No!
Mr Speaker, when it comes to Australia’s education system, you need a long term vision, not piecemeal policies wrapped in a mother of pearl coating, and you need reforms across all levels of education, from pre-school learning through to tertiary education.
This is a budget that avoids at every turn making the sorts of investments we need in education to safeguard Australia’s long term economic prosperity.
