Ms Anna Burke (Chisholm, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Voluntary student unionism has started to bite at Monash University’s Clayton campus, the largest university campus in Australia. The university has notified students that in the blue parking zone—which is the outer zone; it is quite a walk from the blue parking zone to the university—the cost of parking permits will increase by up to 50 per cent. The lower parking permit, which used to be $83 and so was affordable to many students, now costs a whopping $280. The university gathered student union fees last year of $13.5 million. They are now trying to make up that shortfall of $13.5 million. On estimates of parking permit sales last year, this fee increase will net them $2 million.

Whilst the student association appreciates that the university has to find ways to offset revenue lost, it should not come at the expense of students. Monash University at Clayton is not well served by public transport. Having been a student there some years ago—as were many others in this place; you could probably speak to the Treasurer about his experience of getting out there—I know that it is not well serviced by transport. Many people drive there. In this day and age, when students rely heavily on part-time work, they often need their cars for transport between university and their work. This is a massive impost.

The only free parking off campus will now be designated a blue zone. So students who took the option to park a way over at the Synchrotron on Blackburn Road and who could do so for free now no longer have that option. This is not just hurting the students alone; it is also impacting greatly upon the staff. Many staff also drive to the campus. They have been notified that the options they have will increase by 235 per cent or by 39 per cent. The already severely high fee of $340 to park at the campus is now $480 for staff. I am not sure many of us would appreciate having to pay $480 to park to go to work. I appreciate that some people in the inner city who are silly enough to drive and park do incur those fees. But the NTEU put out a petition on campus and in excess of 2,000 staff signed it, saying that this is ridiculous. Yet again we will see university staff refusing to work for universities. This impost is another knife in the university sector.

Monash University is not well serviced by public transport. Even those people who want to use it find it very difficult. The campus is only serviced by buses. The train does not connect in any way shape, size or form to the campus. It is also within the zone 2 or 3 for some students, so transport costs are fairly high already. Something needs to be done to reverse this ridiculous trend where the university is taking money from its hard-earning students and staff to recoup the voluntary student levy, which had provided vital services on that campus. These students do not have the options that Brendan Nelson said they have. Monash University is not in the middle of town. (Time expired)