Kerry Bartlett (Macquarie, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Yes, New South Wales again. New South Wales gives a paltry $27 million to the state’s universities but takes out $124 million in payroll tax, a net deficit of $97 million a year. This is a ridiculous and unfair situation. The two universities that are of most concern to me are the University of Western Sydney and Charles Sturt University. The New South Wales government gave the University of Western Sydney a paltry $109,000 in grants—these are the year 2005 figures—but took out $11.3 million in payroll tax. So the University of Western Sydney, thanks to the New South Wales government, is suffering a deficit of $11.2 million a year because of their payroll tax regime. Charles Sturt University, which is now in my electorate as a result of the redistribution, suffers an impost in net terms of $7.4 million because of the payroll tax imposed by the state government.

I call on the state government to do something about this. If they were serious about education, they would remove their tax regime that is imposed on our state’s universities. And I call on the federal opposition to do something about this. We hear from the opposition these specious claims that they will be able to work more closely with state Labor premiers around the country, that they will have a new approach to federalism, that they will end the blame game and so on. The first challenge in education for the Leader of the Opposition is to convince the state Labor premiers to remove the payroll tax that they impose on universities and give our universities a fair go. Sadly, from the opposition we see too often a readiness to criticise the government and a reluctance to address the issues that really matter. So I call on the state governments, starting with the New South Wales government, to remove that policy of payroll tax from our universities.

I conclude by making the point that this government, the Howard government, is committed to improving the operation of our higher education sector. We have shown that commitment with an increased level of funding. This bill is another step in the right direction in trying to improve the quality of what happens, and I support this bill.

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