TRANSCRIPT
THE HON PETER COSTELLO MP
Treasurer

Doorstop Interview

Parliament House, Canberra

Tuesday, 13 May 2003

8.40 am

SUBJECTS: Budget; higher education; Senate

TREASURER:

Tonight’s Budget is going to be a statement by the Government of how we can

keep Australia strong through a difficult international, economic environment.

And as other countries, like the United States, and Europe and Japan, move into

deep deficit, it is our priority to keep the Budget in surplus. We will also

be laying down tonight, a very bold statement reforming Australia’s higher education

system and international education, improving the way in which universities

can deliver education to students, giving students more choice in relation to

courses. So, tonight will be a combination of structural reform, strong economic

management and making sure that we keep Australia strong and secure in a very

difficult world environment.

JOURNALIST:

Is your eighth Budget as exciting as your first?

TREASURER:

Well they all take a lot of work, I can tell you, I can tell you that. But

they represent the culmination of months of work and months of effort by all

of the Ministers, to whom I pay tribute. Bringing documents together like this

is very, very time consumming and detailed, as you can imagine, and the eighth

has taken as much work as the first.

JOURNALIST:

(inaudible)…Will this Budget make it more difficult for children from average

working families to attend univeristy?

TREASURER:

No, I think it will make, it will give better opportunities…

JOURNALIST:

How will it do that?

TREASURER:

…it will give better opportunities to, for students to get financial assistance

in relation to higher education, but more than that it will give more money

to the universities to provide better courses and it will also allow universities

more flexibility to go into those courses where there is demand and to get out

of those courses where there is no demand.

JOURNALIST:

But won’t there only be more financial assistance because universities will

be allowed to charge more for courses?

TREASURER:

No, there is more financial assistance for universities and there is more

assistance for students, but the…

JOURNALIST:

And more upfront fees?

TREASURER:

…the big, the big leg of all of this is reform of the universities. Universities

as institutions need to become flexible and they need to become responsive to

student demands, just as is happening in the rest of the public sector and indeed

in the private sector.

JOURNALIST:

Do you concede that a large part of your Budget won’t get through the Senate?

TREASURER:

I don’t concede anything to the Senate until such time as the Senate has voted.

The only point I would make is this: the reason we elect governments in Australia

is to, is to get on with the programme and do things. Now, if Mr Crean thinks

that he has the right to disrupt the Government and its programme, he ought

to think very carefully about the outcome of the last election. At the last

election the people voted this Government in, to do a job. They did not vote

Mr Crean into office to disrupt the budgets.

JOURNALIST:

Will we see economic growth slowing for fiscal 2004 from the 4 per cent you

forecast in November?

TREASURER:

Well you might, but you had better look at the Budget documents.

Thanks.