GONSKI: Labor Targets Tertiary, Single Parents ? Julia's Poll Woe

GONSKI: Labor targets tertiary, single parents ? Julia’s poll woe

By Editor

Posted on 14 April 2013

The single-parents rally: More Rob Walls’ pictures below …

The announcement today (Sat) that the Federal Government is cutting more than $2bn from tertiary education funding is appalling.

Yes, the Government needs to find the money to fund the Gonski education reforms as well as the National Disability Insurance Scheme. But to try and do so by stripping money out of tertiary education is robbing Peter to pay Paul. Frankly it makes a mockery of all the Labor Party talk about education funding reform.

Forecast federal revenue for this financial year was $376bn. That sort of money is more than enough to pay for Gonski, the NDIS and any number of other important reforms. It’s all about priorities, and for the Government to think that stripping more than $2bn out of tertiary education is a good idea suggests a dreadful set of priorities.

This is a very important issue for me because Hobart is a university city heavily reliant on federal tertiary education investment. Moreover many of my constituents are financially disadvantaged and already struggle to pay their way through uni.

This is a bad decision of the Federal Government and not one I’ll support.

• SMH: Gillard lays out the sums on Gonski But the federal government will use deep cuts to universities worth $2.8 billion to help pay for school funding, raising concerns that Labor is undermining future education opportunities.

• … as fossil fuels and mining stay subsidised, Christine Milne, here

• Andrew Wilkie: The Federal Government’s announcement today that it’s planning to implement the Gonski education funding reform by injecting an additional $9.4bn over six years is a con job.

Rosalie Woodruff Pic: Rob Walls, http://robertwalls.wordpress.com/