MEDIA RELEASE
UNIVERSITIES DEBATE DESERVES BETTER THAN LABOR’S DRIP FEED
14 July, 2003 MIN 409/03
The Federal ALP has apparently decided to drip feed
its ideas for universities into the media rather than release the
package it promises it has developed.
This is presumably to avoid direct comparisons with
the Government’s $1.5 billion dollar plan and avoid difficult
questions about how the Labor plans will be paid for.
In announcing its decision to oust the almost 9,500
Australian fee-paying students from universities separately from her
announcements for teaching and nursing places, Labor’s education
spokesperson Jenny Macklin has been able to avoid the obvious
observation that she has not created as many places as she has
abolished - students are still worse off than when she started.
In addition a piecemeal drip-feed means that Labor
can avoid difficult comparisons with the complete Backing
Australia’s Future package which includes:
$1.5
billion in additional funds over 4 years ($10.6 billion over ten
years)
The
full-funding of almost 32,000 HECS places over five years –
including almost 2000 additional nursing and teaching positions
The
creation of more than 25,000 learning and living scholarships by
2007
Quarantining HECS rates for nursing and teaching
$122
million for teachers and nurses clinical practice
Regional
loading of $122.6 million for campuses remote from major cities
$160
million for improved university teaching
$55
million for a workplace performance pool
Labor’s determination to ignore the requests from
the university Vice Chancellors for flexibility to vary fees up or
down within a set range would also deny universities access to
additional revenue.
The largest rise in the most expensive course in the
country would add about $2000 a year to a student’s HECS bill- which
they wouldn’t start repaying until earning more than $30,000 a year.
Every additional dollar raised would go into
universities to, among other things, reduce class sizes and better
reward academics.
As Ross Gittins observes in today’s Sydney Morning
Herald:
When Brendan Nelson proposes to deliver
(universities) some funds by increasing HECS and expanding the full
fee scheme for students who fall short of the absurdly high
eligibility cut-offs for certain popular courses, the lobbies scream
No, a thousand times no!
So good ole populist Labor blocks these dastardly
moves in the Senate and happily promises not to extract any more
funding from students. Let is never be said that Labor opposes
well-off welfare….
Because of Labor’s supposed high principles it’s
likely to direct fewer funds into higher education than the
Liberals, not more. Well done.
Ross Gittins, Sydney Morning Herald, 14 July,
2003
Australian Higher Education is on a collision course
with mediocrity. Those who care about the sector know more money is
only half the answer. Our higher education institutions need a
measure of deregulation to thrive and grow in an internationally
competitive environment.
Labor is apparently too policy timid to break the
shackles of its standard reaction of simply reaching for the public
credit card.
Shadow Treasurer Mark Latham must despair at Jenny
Macklin’s approach. As he said:
"Our universities will never be able to realise
their potential without greater freedom and diversity. Governments
of course cannot mandate or prescribe diversity…rather the
Commonwealth needs to give the universities greater power of self
direction and self governance."
Mark Latham, The Enabling State – People before
Bureaucracy, p. 54, Pluto Press, 2001
Labor has been promising a higher education policy
for 18 months. It should immediately release the details and face up
to proper scrutiny.
Media Contact:
Dr Nelson’s Office Ross Hampton 0419 484 095
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