Natasha Stott Despoja (SA, Australian Democrats) Share this | Hansard source

As the Democrats’ higher education spokesperson, I rise to speak on the Higher Education Legislation Amendment (2007 Measures No. 1) Bill 2007, which in many respects continues this government’s reform of the higher education sector. As we have heard, this bill has a number of measures; some are quite minor and others are less so. The bill places some of us in a quandary. Senator Carr referred to the recommendation in the submission from the National Tertiary Education Union that the bill not proceed until the other plans in relation to the RQF, for example, are put forward. But, while many of us would prefer to see the specifics in place, we do not want to hold up funding to the sector that may help them with the implementation of some of these programs, the RQF in particular. So, like the Labor Party, we are in a bit of a bind. As I outlined in the supplementary report to the Senate committee on this, the Democrats are not going to stand in the way of this legislation. Of course, we can read the numbers in this place and can see that this legislation will go through. But there are a couple of issues that should be addressed.