The Coalition Government‘s beleaguered Higher Education reform policies have taken another hit today, with the powerful group of Australia’s leading Universities withdrawing their support for the bills should in compromised form.
The Group of 8 – a coalition of the nation’s top tertiary schools – has stated that they will not continue to support the bills if the Government continues to compromise and water them down for the sake of appeasing the hostile Senate crossbench.
The Group had been a key backer of the proposed changes, which included uncapping and deregulating University Fees, but the Group has stated that continual watering down of the legislation just to appease the Senate and get the laws past defeats the purpose of the original legislation.
The Group’s CEO Vicki Thomson stated, “I suspect from his perspective, he is still working on the basis that he’ll get his legislation through. We’re not quite as confident as he is. He’s always the eternal optimist and usually we are as well but in this case I think we’ve seen the writing on the wall. The crossbenchers are giving us no indication that they want to actually change their position and they’re not giving us any indication they want to change their position on a compromise package either.“
She called on the Government to conduct a depoliticised review into the system and any potential reforms, rather than try to squeeze the legislation through the Senate for a third time. But Education Minister Christopher Pyne bluntly ruled that out.
Thomson also heavily criticised the former Labor Government for getting the University system into the current mess that it’s in today.
“You can’t have a system where you deregulate student numbers, you encourage more students to come to our universities but you regulate funding so that we’re all funded the same. You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to work out that equation just doesn’t work.”
The Group of 8 – referred to colloquially as the “Sandstones” – incorporates the Australian National University, Monash University, The University of Adelaide, The University of Melbourne, The University of New South Wales, The University of Queensland, The University of Sydney, and The University of Western Australia.
The Coalition Government will attempt to push their higher education reform bills through the senate for a third time in the coming months. The crossbench senators have still yet to indicate any intention to budge from their blanket disapproval of the legislation.
Photo: Stefan Postles via Getty Images.
