Treasurer Peter Costello (l) and Opposition Leader Kim Beazley "It's the Budget, Stupid" Photo: Chris Lane, Sydney Morning Herald

To be blunt and brief, Australia’s major political parties proved themselves shallow and irresponsible -- not once but twice during budget week.

First came the Liberal Party’s treasurer, Peter Costello, with his budget. All smiles, he toted up the billions of surplus funds in the national kitty, which indeed did show that he and his government had been good housekeepers: their money-boxes were full. Cheering himself on, the nation’s chief clerk talked about families a lot. ‘Families’ was his most-used word. Treasurer Costello gave off the mantra that this was not really the government’s money -- it was the people’s money. (Sighs of relief from the public gallery … “So that’s who owns it!” … “Such a frank and open treasurer!” … and the occasional grumble, “Who is he kidding?”

The dutiful Costello went on to give the people some of their money back to them in the forms of tax cuts and new spending. The tax cuts turned out to be adjustments to the existing scales. New spending was more significant. More money for urgent tangibles such as roads, rail lines and river reclamation. On the social side there was some for day care of children, a modest amount for medical research and another amount for the shamefully neglected mental health regime. For the Arts practically nothing, for the ABC a trivial amount to help with drama production. The jubilant treasurer talked about the skills shortage and promised to help breed more Australian apprentices.

But on higher education and scientific research the treasurer was silent. It is true that Fran Kelly on Radio National’s Breakfast did ask him about the high end of education. And it is true that the treasurer responded with spin. “More money is going into universities than ever before,” he said blandly. When Ms Kelly demurred, he span on, “More money into universities than ever.” Time was up and she had to let the question float away.

Such a jolly treasurer.

Total flow of money is probably higher than ever but little thanks to the federal government and more to HECS payments and full fee paying students from Asia.

Clearly, the coalition parties don’t rate higher education and science as worthy of much notice. After all, the numbers of people engaged are few, at election time they don’t matter.

Two nights later came Labor’s Kim Beazley with his address-in-reply.

He gave a well-made speech. He looked good, he sounded good. He intoned a favourite tune: “Middle Australia.” He also liked to say families, but Middle Australia was his key phrase. It didn’t take political sagacity to spot his aim -- to win swing voters back from John Howard. They had been labour voters who switched to Liberal and now Kim Beazley wanted the prodigals back in the fold. He promised much to Middle Australia. His party would protect them from this and that government iniquity, he and his party would provide this and that marginal increase in prosperity. He made much of Labor’s determination to create apprenticeships for Australian-born youth.

But for higher education and scientific research he had no words. Obviously while many many voters might live in middle Australia, few lived and worked on university campuses or in the quiet of research laboratories. At election time they could be ignored.

It was the second thump of the week.

The immediate effect is that universities and laboratories can go and whistle for the foreseeable future. Even if the government changed hands at the 2007 election, higher education and scientific research could expect no encouragement until, at the earliest, 2010 or later.

A likely long term effect is even darker. Suppose our political parties remained as shallow and irresponsible for the next 20 years, we could confidently expect to see our tertiary education to run down the mediocrity slope. We are not world leaders now. We would be world camp followers by 2026.

In those 20 years we would certainly see a dreadful brain drain. A young Australian of talent would see greater intellectual, professional and financial opportunities elsewhere -- and go.

The dismal process has begun. We have one million of our people on extended work and study in countries other than our own. If only one in ten is from academia we are losing significantly already.

The trouble lies not with Peter Costello or Kim Beazley. They are products of a past time and are unlikely to raise their horizons. The trouble lies with the major political parties and their policy-making cabals.