Gary Humphries (ACT, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Defence Materiel) Share this | Hansard source

We will see with the passage of this legislation the reinforcement of this system where students are effectively required to make a choice, most of them involuntarily, to belong to organisations or to subsidise organisations that they do not believe are good value for money or they do not want to belong to or they actually disapprove of belonging to. This is most unfortunate. So, yes, Senator Polley, members on this side of the chamber have fought a very long battle about this because as a matter of principle we believe the choice ought to exist.

I belonged to student organisations when I was at university. I was active in student organisations. In fact, I was the president of the Australian National University Students Association because I believed in being involved. But I did not want to say to other people, 'You have to make the same choice I make.' You ought to have the right to decide whether you belong and whether you think it is good value for money, and you put your dollars there. That right is being denied with this legislation.