Media Statement - 13th February 2007
Today in Question Time, the Prime Minister conceded that Australia could do a lot better in education…but that was nothing to do with him or his Government.
In response to questions from the Leader of the Opposition, the Shadow Treasurer Wayne Swan and me, Mr Howard acknowledged the link between education and national productivity improvement, but claimed that the improvements needed were either the responsibility of, or being held back by, the States or by education unions.
This blame game and responsibly shifting was echoed by the Minister for Education, Julie Bishop, who last week said during Parliamentary debate about the crisis in maths and science teaching and education,
“It has nothing to do with us.” (Reference attached)
Under the Howard Government, Australia’s productivity growth has declined over the last ten years.
Average annual multi-factor productivity growth has more than halved from 1.6 percent last decade to just 0.7 percent this decade, while labour productivity growth fell from an average annual 3.2 percent to 2.2 per cent in the five years to 2003-04, compared to the previous five year period.
Benchmarked against the United States economy, Australia’s labour productivity fell back from a peak of 85 per cent to just 79 per cent between 1998 and 2005, almost completely losing the relative productivity gains of the 1990s.
The research and evidence shows that the best way to boost productivity is to invest in human capital. This is why education is the pathway to prosperity.
The OECD report Education at a Glance 2006 concluded that a one year increase in the average level of education of the work force would boost economic growth by one percent.
The Prime Minister didn’t want to talk about investment, but was happy to talk about the States in an effort to distract from the fact that after more than 10 long years, the Howard Government’s record in education and training speaks for itself:
- Australia’s overall investment in education is 5.8 per cent of GDP – behind 17 other OECD economies, including Poland, Hungary and New Zealand.
- According to OECD calculations, Australia spends just one fifth of GDP on pre-school education, compared to the average for other OECD countries.
- Despite doubling school retention rates in the 1980s and early 1990s, those staying on at school have fallen in recent years.
- Funding for post-secondary education is lower in real terms than it was in Labor’s last year in office in 1996.
- OECD figures show that since 1995, our public investment in tertiary education has gone backwards by 7 per cent while other OECD countries have, on average, increased their funding by 48 per cent.
Investment in education is a critical economic investment in the future prosperity of our nation. That is what the Howard Government has neglected over its more than ten years in office.
MATTER OF PUBLIC IMPORTANCE – EDUCATION
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
8 FEBRUARY, 2007
SMITH: Looking at some of the reasons for that, around 25 per cent of senior chemistry teachers do not have a major degree in chemistry, over 40 per cent of senior school physics teachers lack a physics major, 25 per cent of science teachers do not have a science qualification, 25 per cent of maths teachers do not have a major in maths and one in 12 maths teachers studied no maths at university.
BISHOP: It has nothing to do with us.
SMITH: Forty thousand fewer students were enrolled in tertiary accredited science subjects in 2005, and 17,000 students were enrolled in tertiary accredited maths subjects, compared to 2000. What does the Howard government say when it is confronted with that? It says precisely what the two ministers at the table said just then: ‘It has nothing to do with us. We’re just the government of the nation. We’ve just been the government of the nation for 10 long years. It has nothing to do with us. There must be someone else that we can blame. There must be someone else who can take the responsibility.’