Political donations from Universities should be prohibited

The Australian Greens are calling on state and federal governments to immediately move to prohibit universities from making political donations in response to the newly released NSW auditor-general's report which states that 30 per cent of universities in the state have made donations to political parties since 2008.

"Rather than putting the onus on individual universities to develop policies prohibiting political donations, state and federal governments should immediately move to prohibit the use of public money in this way," Greens higher education spokesperson Senator Lee Rhiannon said.

"Despite university management attempting to justify the use of public funds in this way, the auditor-general has made it clear these donations are an inappropriate use of public money.

"It is a sad reflection on the contemporary higher education sector, as well as the state of politics generally, that universities feel as though making political donations is the best way to influence the political debate," said Senator Rhiannon.