Luke Simpkins (Cowan, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I ask: how did it come to this? I thought we had seen an end to compulsory up-front fees at universities. I thought we had embraced a user-pays attitude where if you want to use a service then you pay for it. Yet the Higher Education Legislation Amendment (Student Services and Amenities, and Other Measures) Bill 2009 will see a return to those days when the many subsidised the few users of these offers on campus. I know that university students would recall that in 2005, when the legislation supporting voluntary student unionism was being considered here, Labor fought to make sure that every student had to be a member of a student union. They wanted students to pay for the political activities of unions and they wanted students to subsidise a lot of services that those same students would never use. That legislation was passed and the removal of up-front fees did occur. Since then Labor in its 2007 election campaign was very clear on the matter. In May 2007 the then shadow minister for education stated that he was ‘not contemplating a compulsory amenities fee’. I will say that again: not contemplating a compulsory amenities fee. Yet this bill before the House today has in its title ‘student services and amenities’. Perhaps the former shadow minister, now Minister for Foreign Affairs, would say that he never said anything about a student services and amenities fee. Nevertheless, it is clear that the current government took nothing to the election on this matter and therefore has no mandate for this legislation.

I go further to say that not only did the government deny that it had an agenda then but it misled the Australian people. In August 2008 a number of ministers were asked about this matter. The theme seemed to be that, in contrast to the pre-election position of no amenities fee, the post-election position was not to reintroduce compulsory student unionism. Some may say that there is a difference and that maybe the amenities and services fee is not the same as compulsory student unionism. But, as I will explain, you do not need a university education in animal husbandry to know that if it walks like a duck and it sounds like a duck then it is a duck. I will say this right at the start: this matter is about choice. On this side of the chamber it is about struggling students choosing whether or not to take up the option of using various amenities or services and paying for those services. On the government side it is about forcing struggling students to pay an up-front fee. It is about the government forcing tertiary students to subsidise services, a range of options that they will not use and do not wish to use. This is the difference between us: choice on our side, no choice on the other side; a Liberal Party on this side that took a burden away from students, and over there a Labor Party that will reimpose another tax on students at tertiary institutions.

While it was a long time ago, I do recall my time at university and I remember the compulsory student union fee that I never had a choice in paying. I never had anything to do with the union representatives and in fact did not know anyone who knew even a single student union representative. I never had anything to do with them. That being said, I did participate in intervarsity rowing. I remember paying a fee and costs for a very quick season of around four weeks. It was similar to my annual fees at my normal rowing club, so I do not recall any great subsidisation by the student union. I also say that the boats within the university rowing club were not as good as those of the outside rowing club. The point is that I really wonder where the money we used to pay then went and what it was actually spent on.

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