Campus Review Volume 27. Issue 10 | October 17 | Seite 7

news
campusreview.com.au
One step closer to reforms
Government says education reforms bill
strikes the “right balance” but opponents
vow to stymie its progress.
By Kirstie Chlopicki
T
he federal government’s higher education reforms have
passed through the House of Representatives, but Labor
still plans to block the bill in the Senate.
Education Minister Simon Birmingham maintains the reforms
are essential for the future sustainability of tertiary education in
Australia. However, battle lines have been drawn by the deputy
leader of the Opposition, Tanya Plibersek, who will not accept the
bill in its current form.
“We could agree to quite a few things in this bill if the
government was prepared to separate out these measures,”
she said. “We’ve seen no indication that the government is
prepared to separate out measures like protecting the HEPP
program; the government’s already cut about $200 million from it,
but we’d love to see the rest of it protected.
“It’s the cuts we don’t like, and they’re big, fat cuts too.
“It comes at the same time as they want to cut almost $4 billion
from the Education Investment Fund as well. So they’re cutting
funding to universities’ operating expenses and making students
pay more for a poorer-quality education, and repay that debt
sooner, and cutting infrastructure funding at the same time.”
Plibersek took the opportunity to point out that Australian
students are already making the sixth highest contribution to the
cost of their own education of any students in the OECD.
“What we’ve seen is a very substantial expansion in loans, but
actually a tiny expansion – in fact, real cuts – to university funding
itself,” she said. “If we keep cutting, we’re going to get worse
universities, we’re going to fall down the rankings, and this is a $22
billion export earner.
“We’ve increased the number of students at university by
190,000. We want more kids going to uni and more kids going to
TAFE, because two out of three jobs that’ll be created in the near
future will require post-secondary school education.
“As a nation, we benefit when we have a highly educated, highly
productive workforce.”
Plibersek said she was pleased at the news that the Xenophon
party, Jacquie Lambie and the Greens would oppose the bill and
stand against cost-cutting at universities.
Birmingham said he remained sure the reforms were the right
choice for the nation, and was hopeful they would pass through
the Senate.
“I’m pleased to see our reforms pass through the House of
Representatives, and we are a step closer to delivering a system
that drives better results for students and better value for money for
taxpayers,” he said.
“Our loan book has ballooned out from about $20 billion just
six, seven years ago to $50 billion today – around a quarter of that
is estimated not to be being repaid. Now, we need to make that
sustainable for the future.
If we keep cutting, we’re going to get worse
universities, we’re going to fall down the rankings,
and this is a $22 billion export earner.”
“Under our plan, students will not pay a cent up-front, and
taxpayers on average will foot the bill for more than half the cost of
a degree and fund loans which students start repaying at around
$8 a week.
“This is a package of reforms that strikes the right balance.”
Birmingham said he still aims to lower the starting repayment
threshold for loans to $42,000 as part of the reforms.  ■
5