Uni funding cuts: Coalition keeps the bad despite rejecting the good

The Australian Greens today condemned the Coalition as opportunistic for throwing their weight behind Labor's $2.3 billion raid on university funding despite rejecting Labor's reason for the cuts - the Gonski reforms (SMH, http://tinyurl.com/dx6pz2f 22 April).

"It seems Abbott's Coalition will never miss a chance to squeeze university funding", said Greens higher education spokesperson Lee Rhiannon.

"Federal Labor, by targeting our university sector as a honey pot to raid to the tune of $2.3 billion, has opened the door for the Coalition to opportunistically jump on board the funding cuts.

"It is clear that the Coalition cannot be trusted to stand up for and properly fund our university sector.

"In February, Opposition Leader Tony Abbott refused to rule out deregulating or increasing university student fees.

"During the Howard years, the gap between the cost of higher education and public funding received by the sector grew to almost 30 per cent.

"Federal Labor have set up a destructive trade-off between funding for higher education and funding for schools and it is disappointing but not surprising that the Coalition have used this moment to jump on board university cuts", said Senator Rhiannon.

Contact 0487 350 880