Lee Rhiannon (NSW, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

To move:

That—

(1)   The Senate notes that:

  (a)   the Lobbying Code of Conduct (the Code) has been in operation since 1 July 2008;

  (b)   the Standing Committee on Finance and Public Administration recommended in September 2008 that it conduct an inquiry into the operation of the Code in the second half of 2009;

  (c)   no such inquiry took place;

  (d)   the details of the Government's review in 2010 were not made public; and

  (e)   the stated intent of the Code is to promote trust in the integrity of government processes and ensure that contact between lobbyists and government representatives is conducted in accordance with public expectations of transparency, integrity and honesty.

(2)   The following matter be referred to the Finance and Public Administration References Committee for inquiry and report by 1 March 2012:

The operation of the Lobbying Code of Conduct and the Lobbyist Register.

(3)   In undertaking the inquiry, the committee must consider:

  (a)   whether the Code is adequate to achieve its aims;

  (b)   whether the application of the Code should be extended to include all members of parliament and, if so, how this might be done;

  (c)   whether the Code should be confined to organisations representing clients, or should be extended to organisations which lobby on their own behalf;

  (d)   whether the exemptions under sections 3.5 (a), (b), (e) and (f) are justified; and

  (e)   any other related matters.

To move:

That the Senate—

  (a)   notes that:

     (i)   the University of Sydney in the week beginning 20 November 2011 announced 340 planned job cuts to academic and general staff, due to a forecasted budget shortfall, placing further pressure on staff to meet the increased teaching demands that will arise from uncapped student places next year,

     (ii)   other universities have recently announced similar job cuts due to budget pressures, including La Trobe University's plans to shed up to 230 academic and general staff in 2012, 50 jobs at Macquarie University and mooted cuts to the University of New South Wales and the University of Melbourne Arts faculties,

     (iii)   while Australia's total expenditure on tertiary education is in line with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) average of 1.6 per cent of national gross domestic product (GDP), Australia's public funding levels of 0.7 per cent of GDP are one of the lowest of any OECD country, falling well short of the OECD average of 1 per cent,

     (iv)   Australia is the only OECD country to go backwards in terms of public expenditure on tertiary education institutions in real terms since 1995, leaving Australia lagging behind the United States of America, Finland and Canada, as well as being overtaken by Denmark, Korea and Sweden during this period,

     (v)   chronically low public funding of universities has resulted in an unhealthy reliance on international student fees, creating budget uncertainty which has placed increased pressure on academic staff and students, with higher student to staff ratios and fewer resources, reducing the overall quality of teaching and learning at universities, and

     (vi)   the Review of Australian Higher Education (the Bradley review) recommended a 10 per cent increase in university student base funding, and Australia still awaits the release of the Lomax-Smith review of base funding; and

  (b)   calls on the Government to:

     (i)   immediately increase public funding by 10 per cent per government-supported university student, as recommended by the Bradley review, to give budget certainty to universities, and

     (ii)   set a longer term target to invest 1 per cent of GDP to fund universities, to bring Australia in line with the OECD average, to ensure that Australia maintains a quality tertiary education sector and remains internationally competitive.