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  • The ALTC officially pronounced dead and buried

    12/05/11

    The Gillard government has missed its last opportunity to reverse the ill-thought and regressive decision to abolish the Australian Learning and Teaching Council (ALTC), according to Senator Brett Mason, Shadow Minister for Universities and Research.

    “The 2011-12 Budget provided the final opportunity for this government and for Tertiary Education Minister Evans to admit they have misjudged the mood of the sector, made a bad decision, and gracefully reverse it,” said Senator Mason.

    “Sadly, we now know that this invaluable institution is well and truly gone.”

    The ALTC fell victim to the government’s need to fund the flood relief package. Subsequently, under deals with the Greens and Mr Wilkie to secure the passage of the package, Julia Gillard belatedly agreed to restore $50 million of funding for the Department of Education to undertake some of the functions currently performed by the ALTC.

    “This was very poor policy making. Initially the government was seeking to ‘save’ $88 million over 4 years by abolishing the ALTC. Now, having restored $50 million, the government is only ‘saving’ $38 million, or $9.5 million a year,” said Senator Mason.

    “So for a saving of under $10 million a year, which is not enormous in terms of the overall Budget and the flood relief package, the government has abolished an institution which everyone in the higher education sector regards as virtually indispensable, only to transfer some of its functions to the Education Department which does not have the corporate expertise and experience to perform these functions properly.

    “This is a false economy. The decision to abolish the ALTC seems to have been made by the government on-the-run without any regard for the value and contribution made by the ALTC. The Council’s work is widely recognised and praised across the university sector, and in the past it has delivered tangible and measurable results in improving the quality of university teaching for students.

    “Earlier this year, over two thousand prominent Australian academics as well as concerned community members signed my petition calling on the Labor government and Minister Evans to reverse their decision to abolish the ALTC. The government ignored this and other pleas from the sector.

    “The decision to abolish ALTC clearly demonstrates that this Government, Minister Evans and the Greens are out of touch with the sector, have little interest in issues of importance to it, and have grossly misread its mood.

    “The failure to restore the ALTC in this year’s Budget presents yet another fail mark for the Gillard government in its higher education policy.”
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Brett Mason

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