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In light of OECD’s not-so-positive report on our education expenditure, which shows Australia spends only 4.3% of GDP on education compared with an average of 5% for similar nations, Crikey has sifted through a range of reports from the organisation to see how we fair against our fellow OECD members in other key areas.
Here’s how advanced Australia fares:
The Big Picture
- Household savings have dropped
- Inflation has increased
- Labour productivity is down
- CO2 emissions continue to rise
- Taxes on average worker are higher
Education
- The Federal Government spends only 0.8% of the GDP on universities
- Australia ranked a woeful 24 out of 28 OECD countries in public funding of tertiary education as a percentage of GDP
- Expenditure on education overall is below the OECD average
Environment
- Australia has the highest rate per capita of sulphur and nitrogen oxides in the air of the OECD countries
- Australia is ranked 5th highest of OECD countries in municipal waste per capita
- Despite the above figures, only 0.8% of GDP is spent on pollution control in Australia
Information and Communications Technology
- Australia ranks 17th out of the 30 countries in the amount of broadband subscribers per 100 inhabitants
- We also rank 17th in the price of broadband subscriptions, but still a lot dearer than New Zealand (24th), France (26th), and the USA (27th)
- Public telecommunication investment as a percentage of telecommunications revenue dropped by almost 5% in two years from 21.5%in 2003 to 16.7% in 2005. However, it is still above the OECD average of 15.3%. We rank 8th in telecommunication investment as a percentage of telecommunications, and 3rd per capita
Health
- Australia ranked 12th out of 30 OECD countries in a 2004 evaluation of total spending on health
- Only 67.5% of that total spending in 2004 was public funding, ranking 24th out of 29 OECD countries surveyed on public health expenditure
- Australia ranks 20th (2004) in the number of practicing physicians per 1000 people
Taxation
- Australia ranks 7th highest out of the OECD countries in personal income tax, but 23rd in the percentage of tax receipts as part of the GDP
- Australia is one of two nations (the other New Zealand) in the OECD not to have employee and employer social-security contributions rates, as opposed to the US, which has a marginal rate of 7.65% and the UK of 11%
Family Benefits
- Australia ranked 7th, as of 2003, in public spending on family benefits
- In 2003, Australia ranked 22 out of 28 OECD countries surveyed on public expenditure on childcare and pre-school education
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