The Liberals are pushing ahead in the Parliament with their legislation to jack up students fees and cut university funding by $3.8 billion.
Labor stands with students and universities and will fight against these short-sighted cuts and fee hikes.
The Liberals’ plan means the University of Tasmania will have funding slashed by $51.3 million over the next four years.
Cuts to universities risk lowering the quality of education students receive, which will mean students in Bass will pay more for less, and be forced to repay their debt sooner.
Thousands of local uni jobs are also at risk. This is despite the central role that UTAS has in the future of the Northern Economy.
So determined are they to make cuts, the Liberals have also threatened to bypass the Parliament. This could see the number of university places capped, and an end to Labor’s highly successful Higher Education Partnerships and Participation Program (HEPPP) which supports disadvantaged Australians to get a university education.
Rather than making it harder to attend university, the success of the University Transformation Project requires support of Higher Education in Northern Tasmania.
The HEPPP helped boost Indigenous student numbers by 26 per cent, increased regional student numbers by 30 per cent, and supported more than 36,000 extra students from low income families into universities.
The Liberals have already cut nearly $200 million from this program.
You just can’t trust the Liberals on education.
In contrast, the policies of the last Labor Government meant an extra 190,000 students got the opportunity to go to university.
ROSS HART MP MEMBER FOR BASS
