Higher Education

Govt gags debate on Education changes

By Jenny Macklin
Shadow Minister for Employment, Education and Training

The Howard Government today gagged debate and voted down amendments proposed by Labor that would have made the Government's higher education legislation fairer, more sustainable and averted further industrial action by university staff.

The Howard Government gagged debate on the bill to cover up for the Education Minister's inability to effectively defend the legislation and to hide the lack of government speakers.

Today is a dark day for Australia. Australia is one step closer to an American-style system where money more than marks opens university doors.

The Howard Government's legislation has passed unamended through the House of Representatives.

That means that the core element of the legislation remains - restricting Australians' participation in higher education through higher fees and insufficient HECS places.

The Minister refused to answer a direct question about which courses he would cutting public funding from and on what basis he would be determining whether they served the national interest.

Following the Government's outright rejection of the Opposition's amendments, Labor voted against the Bills at the third reading.

The Howard Government has cut $5 billion from universities since 1996. The higher education legislation will force students and their families to make up the missing billions.

University staff across Australia are today taking national industrial action in protest against the Howard Government's unfair university change.

Labor tried to move amendments to remove the most inequitable and prescriptive elements of the Howard Government's changes and ensure that every university receives a desperately-needed increase in funding:

· Remove the coercive IR and governance conditions on $404 million of university funding
· Abolish full fees for all future Australian undergraduates including the provision that would let the Education Minister remove all HECS places from particularly courses - the Minister refused to even speak on this amendment
· Set the maximum HECS fees for university courses at their current levels
· Reign in the Education Minster's unprecedented power to micro-mange every Australian university down to the course level
· Eliminate the real interest rate on loans for postgraduate study
· Increase the HECS repayment threshold to $35,000
· Create a new index measure to maintain the value of Commonwealth grants and fund better standards.

In gagging debate and out-right rejecting these amendments the Howard Government has shown that it is not interested in working with the Opposition to develop a fair and workable solution to the crisis in our universities.

© 2001 Community & Public Sector Union - State Public Services Federation (CPSU-SPSF) - National Office

http://www.cpsu-spsf.asn.au/latest_news/higher_ed/20031016_debate.html
Last Modified: 15 Nov 2005