Peta Murphy (Dunkley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Last night, the Prime Minister shut down debate on his plans to make humanities, law, commerce and communications students pay more for their degrees, to make it harder for students from low-income families to get to university in the first place, and to cut a billion dollars from universities. Once again, this Prime Minister made a mockery of parliament and democracy. Once again, he tried to stop me from speaking up for my community. He tried to stop me from speaking up for VCE students Monica and Stephanie, whose mother asked me to make noise for those who can't be heard. He tried to stop me from speaking up for Melissa, whose son loves politics, history and law—he gets A and A-plus grades—but came home from school after hearing the government's plan to hike up fees for his chosen degree and said, 'What's the point?' He tried to stop me from speaking up for Adrian, who wants his daughter and all future students to be able to study the subjects they're passionate about and skilled in without being penalised tens of thousands of dollars by the government. He tried to stop me from speaking up for Dr Emma, who's driven by this government's brutal policy to consider walking away from her career as a university lecturer and who wants to know what to tell her daughter, who's studying humanities subjects in VCE, thinking she's following in her mum's footsteps. He wants to stop me speaking up for John, who describes the so-called job-ready university reforms as like treating a dental cavity by removing someone's mouth. Well, here's a message for the Prime Minister: you can't stop democracy, you can't hide from the impacts of your policies, and you can't tell Dunkley residents to just be quiet and go away. I will continue to be my community's voice.

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