Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Parry, you are absolutely right—it is gross mismanagement. But methinks it is not so much negligence as part of the 24-hour news cycle spin. Education revolution was five minutes ago; that no longer has any traction. Now it is nation building; now we have to talk nation building. And I am sure by the time of the next budget—but let’s just wait on this. What is the bet there will not be a budget before the next election? Let’s wait and see whether Labor are willing to deliver another budget. That is when the young people of this nation will get hit with a triple whammy. The first whammy is the $9,000 debt. The second whammy is that it is their Education Investment Fund that has now been stripped of funding. Of course, the third whammy will show how the economy is in a complete train wreck scenario because of the mismanagement. For those of us that are over 50, chances are we have lived half our lives. But the young people, whose cause people like Senator Mason and I are trying to champion, still have their lives in front of them. They still have their educational needs in front of them. That is why the stripping out of this money from the Education Investment Fund is so very damaging to the future of our country. Indeed, I recall Ms Gillard—and I happen to note the minister for innovation and industry, amongst other things, in the chamber—told us on 17 September 2008:

Our reform agenda will be complemented by increased investment in innovation … through the new $11 billion Education Investment Fund.

How hollow those words now sound, because we know there was never any intention. If the government were genuinely concerned about education and its funding for the future, they would have said, ‘Education is a better long-term investment in human capital in this country than giving a cash splash of $22 billion.’ Remember the first $10 billion? That was supposed to create 75,000 new jobs, yet not a single job can be identified for that gross waste of money. But then not to be outdone they came into this place with another $40 billion-plus stimulus package, and you would have thought that by spending four times the amount of money there may have been the creation of a further four times 75,000 jobs. No, they came into this place and said that $40 billion on this occasion would not create—only support—90,000 jobs.

What a waste of money these stimulus packages have been. We as a coalition would have had a lot more modest a figure. We would not have had the cash splashes and as a result the Education Investment Fund, which was the guarantee to future generations, the legacy that was able to be left by the sound financial management of the Howard-Costello governments, money that was set aside for future generations, is now being squandered by Rudd Labor.  We take the view in general terms that governments are elected to govern. They are entitled to make decisions, and on this occasion we will not stand in the way of this legislation, but I, on behalf of the coalition, hope I have been able to express our concerns as to why this raid on the Education Investment Fund has been necessary, the damage it will do to the future of our country and especially to the future of our young people and that but for the reckless spending spree, the reckless cash splashes, there would have been no need for this raid and education would have been able to continue to shine and grow as it did under the Howard years.

Let me remind those opposite, in case they comment on the so-called lack of investment under the Howard government, the greatest investment that the Howard-Costello government made in the future of young people was to pay off Labor’s $96 billion debt that it left from last time. We paid that off only in April 2006. That is how long it took. It was only after that debt was paid off that we were able to start investing in schools and set aside these future funds, and Labor has squandered the future funds and got us back into debt to the great future detriment of the young people of Australia. We will seek to champion their cause yet again, as we undoubtedly will be required to, when we fix up the economy after the next election.