Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Minister for Education) Share this | Hansard source

Both of those measures will benefit lower SES students and first-generation university goers to the tune of 80,000 more students a year by 2018. They will also benefit by the introduction of the largest Commonwealth scholarship fund in Australia's history and they will benefit by more revenue for universities, leading to more research and better quality teaching. In return, the government is asking, on behalf of the taxpayers, that students contribute 50 per cent of the cost of their education—when they are currently contributing 40 per cent. So we are asking for a 50-50 split—that is, 50 per cent from the taxpayer and 50 per cent from students, when currently it is 60-40 in favour of the student.

Labor's proposal, on the other hand, is more of the same—more of the inevitable decline. Plus, when they were in government, they proposed savings to the university sector of $6.6 billion. Labor proposed cuts $6.6 billion with no capacity for extra revenue to be raised by the university system.

Ms Butler interjecting—

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