Julie Owens (Parramatta, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Today I wish to bring to the attention of the chamber the increasing difficulties faced by my local university, the University of Western Sydney, in providing those all-important, non-academic services to its students. The problem arises because the services company UWS Connect—which is not a student union company; it is quite independent—which provides services on campus, including retail, food and beverage outlets, sport and leisure facilities, child care and advice to students on specific issues such as health and wellbeing, can no longer access service fees that were previously collected by the student union and which amounted to about $10 million in 1995 and 1996. This need for service is increasing, yet the money is now significantly less and must be found by the university itself. It is another example that the Howard government is just not serious about ensuring that the students of Western Sydney have access to decent amenities and services, whether it is health facilities, childcare facilities or other important social and recreational services, all of which are vital to students’ personal and professional development and growth.

When the government introduced voluntary student unionism in December 2005 it said that it would ensure transitional arrangements to secure such services. But, far from securing these services, the Howard government has just heaped the cost onto the university itself. The University of Western Sydney has lost around $5 million a year in annual income as a result of that legislation. The Minister for Education, Science and Training’s recent announcement of the $24 million grant for sporting and recreational facilities, which is welcome, cannot disguise the fact that 43 eligible universities will be competing for those funds or the fact that the funds are for facilities only and not for the essential ongoing services provided by the university.

UWS has a student population of over 35,000. It needs significant investment in support services and is suffering because the demands are ever increasing just as the funds have been dramatically cut. UWS Connect, which provides the services, is a major organisation employing more than 200 staff and operating at many sites on all of the UWS campuses. It provides student welfare services, student representation and advocacy. It also provides courses including survival courses in first aid and lifesaving as well as coffee-making and bar attendant courses to help students support themselves in these increasingly difficult times. These are not luxury services; they are essential to university life and they are not viable without subsidy. For the campuses in Western Sydney, there are no shopping or services centres across the road—it is the university or nothing—and the food outlets provide low-cost meals for many hours a day and are closed for substantial periods of the year. It is the nature of the transitional arrangements which reveals the government’s all too familiar short-sighted approach to education and shows that it is not really serious about ensuring that such services and amenities are provided and sustained in the long term.

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