The Turnbull Government has today confirmed that it will go ahead with plans outlined in the 2014 Federal Budget and slash university funding by 20%. From The ABC:
Senator Birmingham said the Government needed to find savings from higher education…
Senator Birmingham confirmed the Government intends to implement the university deregulation plan announced in the controversial 2014 budget from next year…
Labor’s Higher Education spokesman Kim Carr said the Government’s deregulation program meant it would cut $12 billion from the sector…
Senator Carr has committed to spending $14 billion, which is “extra money in our universities to restore the budget cuts”.
With the Turnbull Government opposing reforms to Australia’s property tax lurks, ruling-out significant reform to Australia’s superannuation concessions, and yet flagging cuts to corporate taxes, the Coalition has to come up with other ways to raise Budget revenue. And it appears that university funding – and by extention younger people – will bear the brunt.
The proposed cuts to university funding, at the same time as it defends Australia’s property tax rorts, makes a complete mockery of Malcolm Turnbull’s “innovation agenda”, which relies on having a highly educated young workforce free from crippling student debts, along with an incentive to innovate rather than speculate on property.
At a minimum, the Turnbull Government should give serious consideration to the Grattan Institute’s alternative proposal to lower the HELP repayment threshold. This way, the government could achieve Budget savings without slashing funding.
There is, of course, an alternative proposal to consider at the upcoming election. By addressing the negative gearing and CGT rorts, and in the process raising some $32.1 billion over 10 years according to the Parliamentary Budget Office, Labor has pledged to raise university funding by $13.8 billion over 10 years.
So the choice for voters is a simple one: vote for the Coalition to maintain the current property tax rorts, slash education funding, and watch the economy become more unbalanced. Or vote for Labor to unwind these rorts, pump more money into the education system, and achieve a more balanced economy.
