DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION —
2018–19 STATE BUDGET
403. Hon DONNA FARAGHER to the Minister for Education and
Training:
I refer to the 2017–18 and
2018–19 state budgets, specifically the total appropriations provided
to the Department of Education to deliver services.
(1) Can the
minister confirm that in the 2017–18 state budget, the government
forecast total appropriations provided to deliver services of $4.11 billion in
2018–19; $4.12 billion in 2019–20; and $4.2 billion in 2020–21;
and that in the 2018–19 state budget, these appropriations have been
reduced to $4.04 billion in 2018–19; $4.02 billion in 2019–20;
and $4.09 billion in 2020–21?
(2) If yes to
(1), can the minister confirm that this amounts to a reduction in spending on
education services of an estimated $281 million over this period?
(3) If yes to
(1), what are the savings that will be implemented by the department to meet
this budget reduction?
Hon SUE
ELLERY replied:
I thank the honourable member for
some notice of this question.
(1) Yes.
(2)–(3) A
number of changes have been made to the department's budget since the
release of the 2017–18 budget, as listed in the ''Spending
Changes'' table on pages 291 and 292 of volume 1 of the 2018–19
budget paper No 2. In addition, other revisions have been made to the
department's budget as a result of changes in commonwealth funding,
which did not impact the department's total cost of services. I draw
the honourable member's attention to the total cost of services, I think,
on page 291 of the budget paper.