Alannah Mactiernan (Perth, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Universities across Western Australia are facing huge cuts in government funding over the next four years. Curtin University of Technology will lose $146 million; Edith Cowan University, $101 million; Murdoch University, $63 million; University of Notre Dame, $41 million; and the University of Western Australia, $118 million.

At the same time, the rules for Commonwealth supported places are being extended to for-profit organisations. This is one area of the change to public education policy that has not been properly scrutinised. Even the minister's friend the vice-chancellor of the Australian Catholic University has expressed his concern that this will open the path to the American style and, to quote Vice-Chancellor Craven, 'The Ma and Pa Kettle universities,' dumbing down our universities. Minister Pyne is happy with this. Under his model of deregulation, the sandstone universities will thrive. That is exactly what Minister Pyne wants. He wants a stratified system. He sees education as a positional board and thinks that people like him should have that opportunity to enjoy an elite product, while we dumb down the rest— (Time expired)

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