Higher Education

Higher Ed Inquiry Chairs statement

By Senator Kim Carr
Shadow Minister for Science and Research, Shadow Minister for Industry and Innovation, Shadow Minister for the Public Service

Today we are here to reveal the results of a 4-month investigation into the Government's dangerous and radical higher education package.

The committee was swamped with submissions, almost 500 in total, with fewer than a half dozen backing the Government's plans.

We heard from 21 university heads, and not one, not a single one - said the package should pass in its current form.

A number had a list of concerns as long as your arm.

And the loudest protests came not from the universities that are set to lose under the package. They loudest cries were heard for the nation's richest universities, those that were definitely on the winning side of the equation.

The Vice-Chancellors of Melbourne and Sydney University Professors Alan Gilbert and Gavin Brown said it was bureaucracy run riot, and that Dr Nelson had turned into the Frog Prince.

Professor Gilbert said the Industrial relations provisions were so heavy handed that they probably weren't worth the money the Government had tied to them.

And that was just the start.

All through the 118 pages of the majority report you will hear the voices of Australians shocked by what this Government plans to do to the great public universities of this country.

It will:

Stifle student choice and increase the cost of education;
Lumber students and their families with the kind of debt that may well stop people having kids;
It will hit those who are less well of the hardest, reducing their chance at getting a decent education;
It will deepen divisions in society and compromise our economic and social prosperity;
It undermines academic freedom, a cornerstone of modern democracy;
It treats universities with contempt, like sly grog shops;
It will intrude into university autonomy in a way not seen in this nation;
It will allow the Minister to determine what courses a university can run, who teaches them, what research will be undertaken and where;
It will allow the minister or department to send investigators on to any university premises, without a warrant, for compliance searches. It is big brother at work;
It will allow the minister to lock Australians out of courses, because he has the power to make them 100% full fee paying.
In short it will degrade our university system, and make it harder for out children to get access to it.

All of this is so unnecessary. Funds for the universities have been appropriated for 2004. The system can function fully without disruption. There is time to get these things right.

But what have we got from this Government, a classic case of the favourite Tory sport, rowing. You can look one way while you are travelling in the other.

They talk about cutting red tape, while what they are doing is increasing it.

They talk about flexibility while tying the universities up in bureaucratic knots.

They talk about autonomy, while imposing unprecedented levels of Government control.

But there is one area in which we are in accord with the Government. We agree that the status quo is not sustainable. Action is required to secure future of our universities.

They question now facing the Senate is this:

Will the Government's prescription cure the system. We believe it will not.

We believe it will poison our great institutions and with them our future and that of our children.

Full report is available: http://www.alp.org.au/media/1103/20006307.html

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

http://www.cpsu-spsf.asn.au/latest_news/higher_ed/20031110_carr.html
Last Modified: 15 Nov 2005