ABC NewsRadio

SUBJECT: School funding changes; GST E&OE................................ Announcer: Marius Benson is speaking to the Shadow Education Minister, Christopher Pyne Marius Benson: Christopher Pyne, the Prime Minister says the choice is very clear for Australians at the next election. You, if elected, will cost the Australian education system billions. You will cost individual schools millions of dollars. Hon Christopher Pyne MP: Well of course, it’s another Labor lie, and Julia Gillard is the past master at telling lies to the Australian public and trying to get them to believe them. The Prime Minister is cutting school education in the next four years by $326 million. In the fifth and sixth year, on a fantasy, she is promising billions of dollars of new spending. And that’s like saying ‘I’m going to reduce your salary for the next four years, but I promise that in the fifth and sixth year, your salary will skyrocket. Now, no Australian will accept that as a sensible proposition, and neither does the Opposition. Benson: Well, one Australian has accepted that as a sensible proposition, in the form of the New South Wales Premier, Barry O’Farrell, who wants to sign up to it. Has he been conned? Pyne: I think he has been conned. I think New South Wales has signed up to a very bad deal, and I think now that they have the opportunity to see the budget in all its black-and-whitedness, it’s quite clear that the Government is cutting education for the next four years, and then expecting people to sign on to a promise in 2018 and 19, which is a long way away. I think Barry O’Farrell has been conned, and I think he should pull out of this national agreement, as his is the only state that has signed up to it. Benson: On another issue, the Prime Minister says that on tax, the Opposition’s intention is to increase the rate and broaden the base of the GST. ‘It’s on their agenda’, she says. ‘It’s not on ours’ Pyne: Look, another Labor scare campaign. Julia Gillard is sounding and behaving in a desperate way. There is no plan from the Coalition to increase the GST. Of course there isn’t. The GST is a state and territories’ Tax. If the states and territories want to talk about it, they’re perfectly entitled to do so. This is a democracy. We’re not Stalinist Russia. Benson: But if the states and territories want to increase it – and they get revenue from it – if they want to increase it, will they find support in an Abbott government? Pyne: No. The Coalition has no plans to change the GST, but this is not Stalinist Russia, and therefore if the states and territories want to talk about changing the GST that’s a matter for them. It’s their tax, but the Coalition has absolutely no plans to change it, and Labor could be asked the same question since they haven’t responded to the report that the Grants Commission did on the GST carve-up. Why didn’t they respond to that report? Have they got a secret agenda to change the GST? I mean, this is all the kind of nonsense you expect from the Labor Party when they are flailing around like a cut snake, desperate to find any distraction from the hopeless economic management they’ve visited upon the country. Benson: Two new polls out today, and broadly the figures are better for Labor. Do you think Labor’s on the up and up? Pyne: Look, I think the public are waiting for the election in one hundred and eighteen days, and we’ll know then whether people want to re-elect a government that’s failed to protect our borders, can’t manage the economy, has increased pressure on cost of living, and made peoples jobs more insecure. That’ll be a matter for the public, but the polls will come and go. We have almost four months left before the election. The Coalition will put its best foot forward to try and win because we think we have a better plan for the nation. Benson: Christopher Pyne thanks again. Pyne: It’s a pleasure Marius. ENDS.