The Abbott government has traded away most of the budget savings it was counting on from its higher education package, launching a second attempt to legislate the changes even as key crossbench senators warned they continued to oppose core elements. The education minister, Christopher Pyne, introduced a new bill to the lower house on Wednesday, a day after the Senate blocked his first attempt to deregulate university fees and cut course subsidies by 20%. The new bill is substantially the same as the previous one, although it incorporates concessions the government had already offered crossbenchers in an attempt to win their support. The Senate blocked the bill by 33 votes to 31 before the debate reached the stage where the government could move the amendments it had announced. The new bill reveals the government has significantly revised down the estimated budget savings, cutting the four-year impact from $3.9bn to $451m. The concessions include scrapping the plan to increase interest rates on student loans, freezing indexation on debts for low-earning primary carers of young children, and a $100m structural adjustment fund to help universities move to the new system. Universities Australia is calling for the structural adjustment fund to be increased to $500m, an additional $400m cost that, if accepted, would eliminate almost all of the package’s remaining budget savings over four years. During parliamentary question time on Wednesday, Labor referred to the $3.5bn gap between the previous bill’s and the new legislation’s costings. The shadow treasurer, Chris Bowen, asked what the treasurer, Joe Hockey, would cut “to fill his new $3.5bn hole”. Advertisement “Well, the basis of the question is fundamentally wrong,” Hockey replied. “We are absolutely committed to higher education reform and we will continue with higher education reform. It is absolutely the case that it continues to deliver savings.” Despite the lower savings over the budget period, the government maintained its measures would improve the sustainability of higher education funding and “contribute to repair of the budget over the longer term”. The government’s determination to proceed with the bill has emboldened Labor during the final parliamentary sitting week of the year, with the opposition leader, Bill Shorten, declaring he would “never surrender” in his campaign against “$100,000 degrees”. Pyne said he hoped with “time and persuasion” senators would ultimately pass the bill. The minister said he had secured support from four crossbench senators – Ricky Muir, Bob Day, David Leyonhjelm and John Madigan – in Tuesday’s Senate vote on whether debate could proceed to the next stage. He expressed confidence he could win over at least two of the four remaining crossbench senators who voted against the bill: Jacqui Lambie, Nick Xenophon and the two Palmer United party senators, Glenn Lazarus and Dio Wang. But Lazarus, the PUP’s Senate leader, said he would continue to oppose the 20% cut to course subsidies and the removal of caps on tuition fees. “If it’s got any indication of cutting funds to the universities and the deregulation of university fees, which will then give the potential to increase university fees, I won’t be voting for it,” Lazarus told the ABC. The PUP leader, Clive Palmer, said the party would “never vote for the education bill privatising Australian education”. “They can bring it up 20 times; it’ll be defeated,” he said. Pyne said he would continue to negotiate with crossbenchers and he was a “great believer in forward momentum”. “If you believe in something you should have a go,” he said. “I think the Australian public give you great credit for actually putting your money where your mouth is and not slinking away from the camp in the middle of the night hoping you won’t have to fight the battle.” Asked whether he was prepared to give ground on the funding cut, Pyne said: “I’m always prepared to talk about negotiation, always prepared to negotiate – whether it’s with Universities Australia, whether it’s with the crossbenchers. I’ve been quite flexible, not quite Houdini, but I’ve been as flexible as I can be and I intend to continue to be.” Pyne said his bill, which also extended funding to sub-bachelor courses and private colleges, was “not just a budget measure” but represented “some of the most important reform in generations”. He pointed to other elements of the plan, including the requirement that universities set aside a fifth of any increased fee revenue for scholarships for disadvantaged students. Pyne defended the removal of caps on tuition fees, saying the government did not believe it should dictate the price as institutions were “operating with one arm tied behind their back”. And he said it was important for students to understand that the higher education contribution scheme (Hecs) was “here to stay”, ensuring they could defer payment of all of their tuition fees until they were earning more than $50,000 in annual income. “The Australian parliament again has an opportunity to support some of the greatest higher education reforms of our time and it is clear that there is no credible alternative,” Pyne told the lower house. Shorten said Pyne lacked the numbers to pass his legislation as the measures were unfair and “irredeemable”. “We should be reaching for higher ground in this country,” Shorten said in a speech to a special Labor caucus meeting. “We will seek, unlike Tony Abbott, a mandate at an election for a sustainable future for higher education.” Taking a dig at Pyne for quoting Winston Churchill on Tuesday, Shorten said: “Can I on behalf of the caucus just say this to him and the government: Labor will fight these changes to higher education. We shall fight them in the parliament. We shall fight them in the community. We shall fight for opportunity. We shall fight for a fair university system and we shall never surrender.”
Posted on: Wed, 21 Jan 2015 02:32:53 +0000
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