Peter Costello (Higgins, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Is that banned too? I think you ought to read the legislation very carefully. You will be getting up for the next speech, no doubt, Member for Kingston, and will take us to the section which prohibits any money being given to a student club on campus, I presume. You have alleged that it is banned. It is not. The ban is in relation to candidates sitting in political office or gifts to political parties.

What about the AUS resolution of 1975 to campaign against the Zionist aggressor? Would money be forbidden for use in that campaign? No, of course it would not. Would it be forbidden, for example, to organise a student demonstration against a G20 conference in Melbourne? We read in the papers today that the Prime Minister is going to go off to the G20 with his plan to save the world. Many people will remember that the G20 held its 2006 meeting in Melbourne. I was the chair of the G20 at the time, and an organisation known as Stop G20 was formed. It had its training days at the RMIT Student Union. It drew its activists from universities both in Sydney and in Melbourne. It engaged in violent demonstrations in the street against the G20, I know not why. In the course of those violent protests, Constable Kim Dixon of the Victoria Police was hit by a barricade thrown by student activist Julia Dehm. Constable Kim Dixon has subsequently had to retire from the Victoria Police force and Julia Dehm has been convicted and given a community service order. Another student on charges is awaiting trial: a man by the name of Akin Sari, who smashed a police vehicle. The student unions have given money to fund his defence.

I ask this question: is there anything in this bill that would prohibit the compulsory taxes levied on students being given in legal aid to demonstrators who demonstrate against the G20 or go to political demonstrations? Of course there is not. So it is quite feasible that these compulsory fees collected by way of a tax, which will be used for student services, which will be used for legal aid and which will be used for training days, could be used for demonstrations against the G20—where policewomen doing their duty are injured and where public property is vandalised. It is quite feasible. There is nothing at all in this legislation that could stop that. It does not even make a pretence of trying to stop that kind of activity, because, at the bottom of it, this is all about imposing a new tax to try and provide services for which people would not ordinarily want to pay.

The Howard government did actually provide some money after it brought in voluntary student unionism to provide, particularly in rural campuses, sporting facilities and activities. There is no reason at all why this government, if it really believed this was absolutely essential to education, could not provide finance for limited non-political services. The Howard government provided $100 million. If this government says, ‘Well, we are being careful with taxpayers’ money’, my view would be that it is a little late for the Labor Party to start getting worried about taxpayers’ money now. They have actually spent $52 billion in new discretionary spending since the budget. They have actually authorised $200 billion of new borrowings. After the Howard government got out of a net debt of $96 billion, it has all been re-borrowed in the last 12 months.

I would think of the taxpayers, but I would have thought of the taxpayers a little earlier than this legislation. Poor old Mr Tanner is lying awake at night worrying about the debt. The funny thing is that he did not have to lie awake and worry about the debt when he was elected. It is only since he was elected that the debt has been re-borrowed. Maybe he should have had a few sleepless nights before he borrowed it rather than after he borrowed it.

This is a new tax. It is a compulsory tax. It does not prohibit political activity, and it should not be introduced. The Labor Party does not have a mandate for it; it is in breach of assurances which they gave before the election and it should be defeated.

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