Howard's $70 Billion splurge

THE Government has launched its bid for a fifth term with a bold budget promising $31.5 billion in tax cuts focused on the "Howard battlers" and delivering a king hit to Labor by pledging almost $9 billion on education.

And in a big sweetener, $4 billion in one-off payments will be handed out before the election to voters - including the elderly, veterans, carers and low- and middle-income earners - as tax-free lump sums.

The elderly, for example, will receive $500 each to "share in the economic growth they helped create".

Child-care benefits will be increased by 10 per cent, child rebates brought forward and those on $58,000 or less will receive $1.1 billion in a one-off Government top-up to their superannuation.

The budget, which promises $70 billion in spending over four years, includes the most expensive education program unveiled by the Howard Government and is aimed to diminish Kevin Rudd's education revolution.

An investment fund, the Higher Education Endowment Fund, has been established to pay in perpetuity the costs of university infrastructure and research facilities. It will operate like the Future Fund and will be seeded with $5 billion from this year's budget surplus.