Swan calls education cuts ‘responsible’

Treasurer Wayne Swan considers $3.9 billion in education cuts contained in the midyear Budget update to be ‘responsible’.

Asked about his promise to bring the budget back to surplus in 2013 without slashing health and education, Treasurer Wayne Swan declared the education cuts were responsible.

“After promising to deliver a surplus and not cut education, Wayne Swan has ditched the surplus and slashed education,” said the Shadow Minister for Education, Christopher Pyne.

“Wayne Swan has broken his promise and also exposed the Gillard Government’s fraudulent education credentials. Labor talks about increasing education spending, but their record is actually big funding cuts,” Mr Pyne said. 

“Besides the $3.9 billion in the MYEFO another $600 million was cut from the Computers in Schools programme in the 2012 Budget,” he said.

“Parents are only just discovering they have to fork out thousands for school computers because the centrepiece of Labor’s 2007 election pitch, the Computers in Schools programme, has no more funding.

“Who can trust Labor on anything when they can’t keep their promise to deliver a surplus and can’t keep their promise not to cut education?

7 February 2013