From The Campaign Trail

Education is a key driver for any society. It influences almost all aspects of life and is fundamental to our economy, our competitiveness, our capacity to discover and explore. Despite this self-evident fact, John Howard delivered a 4% decline in Australia’s investment in higher education between 1995 and 2004 while the OECD average increased by 49% - a stunning difference of 53 points. Despite years of economic prosperity, when it comes to public expenditure Australia is now the third lowest spender on higher education amongst OECD countries. I ask two questions. First, why the appalling neglect of education? Second, where did all the benefits from economic growth go? Australian needs an Education Revolution and Labor will deliver it: http://www.alp.org.au/media/0907/msedutloo190.php