John Howard (Bennelong, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

In answer to the Leader of the Opposition, the reference I made to $100,000 fees was a reference to HECS funded fees; it was not a reference, as the Leader of the Opposition knows, to people who paid full fees. At present there are no $100,000 university fees for Commonwealth supported students. Let me say that again: there are no $100,000 university degrees for HECS funded places in this country. That is the situation.

Let me remind the House that 97 per cent of all undergraduate Australian students are in Commonwealth supported places. For all these students the government covers 75 per cent of the cost of study. Universities may admit full fee paying students. There is a 35 per cent cap on the number of full fee paying undergraduate students, and fewer than three per cent of all undergraduate students actually take up this option. What the Labor Party is proposing is a circumstance where if you are English or American or Chinese or Japanese you can pay full fees—

See this speech in context