Marise Payne (NSW, Liberal Party, Minister for Human Services) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Senator McGrath. The potential blocking of any of the reforms is something that people like Professor Greg Craven have made some interesting observations on. It would be, in his words, 'a vote for failing institutions, random cuts, a declining student experience and embarrassingly weak national research'. He also says, 'It can never be in the interests of students to be enrolled in a third-rate university system.'

Another vice-chancellor, Professor Margaret Gardner, has said that rejecting the reforms would mean less funding for universities, lower teaching and research quality and less funding available for scholarships—the sorts of scholarships that are going to take the numbers at Sydney university available to students from 700 to 9,000 at that one university alone. Tens of thousands of other students will miss out on the benefits from Commonwealth scholarship if this legislation is not passed by the Senate. There would be other consequences as well. (Time expired)