Jacinta Collins (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Mason says these comments about Australian workplace agreements are not relevant, but I say they set the culture that has carried over into the government’s requirements. Senator Mason earlier quipped about a socialist approach to matters. Yet what could be a more socialist approach than prescribing the size of university boards, for instance?

The governance arrangements here, as I am sure Senator Carr will outline in a bit more detail, are all about the processes. They are not about measuring outcomes or performance on an outcome basis. This is what our review will ensure will be the case in the future. The end of the workplace relations requirements removed by the bill will clear the way for us to establish healthier and more mutually respectful relations with the higher education sector. This is vital if we are to improve the performance of the university sector. Full Commonwealth grant funding will now flow to the universities if this bill proceeds as it stands rather than as the opposition seeks to amend it. In the future, relations between government and universities should be based around negotiated funding compacts reflecting the distinctive missions of each university. We need that flexibility and we need that diversity.

Senator Mason says, ‘Trust us.’ I think the very nature of these requirements and the arrangements for Australian workplace agreements set the field so that, no, that trust could not occur in the first instance. He suggests an analogy with corporations, yet this could not be more different from the arrangements that would apply to corporations. Senator Mason accuses us of a socialist approach, yet these very arrangements are so interventionist and so prescriptive that they make that comment laughable. Senator Mason, I conclude my comments in this debate on the second reading with an interest in hearing you justify why these governance arrangements should remain, because they seem very contrary even to the principles that you have raised in your comments. I look forward to hearing you discuss them further, but my general point at this stage in the debate is that the previous government, now the opposition, have no track record here. Your form is appalling. The form demonstrated by what was established in both these higher education workplace requirements and the governance requirements is appalling.