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

Paul Kelly nailed this in The Australian on the weekend when he was quoting Mike Gallagher, the executive director of the Go8 universities, who said of the Labor Party:

It is outrageous that they have washed their hands of responsibility for the mess they created.

That Labor created. He also said:

Unless there is reform we will continue to drift, we will fall behind the emerging universities of Asia and we will fall out of touch with the vital global centres of knowledge.

There was a time when there were Labor figures who were strong enough and big enough to recognise the need for reform. Bob Hawke said:

You've got to get rid of the idea that there is or ever has been or ever could be free education.

Ms MacTiernan interjecting—

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