Brett Mason (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Education) Share this | Hansard source

But under section 54-1 of the act the minister has the capacity to reduce, or require repayment of any part of, a grant. In other words, the capacity for a minister to sanction is there and, indeed, under the principal act the power is not just to reduce the grant to a university by 7½ per cent; in theory it could be the entire grant—I am not suggesting that that would happen. In other words, a sanction greater than the sanction included with respect to the National Governance Protocols is included in the act under section 54-1, so obviously the government is not against the idea of the minister using a potentially large financial sanction against universities for non-compliance with governance or quality standards.