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  • Government moving forward blindly on Bradley reforms

    02/06/11

    The Labor Government has shown a perplexing lack of interest in long-term planning connected with the implementation of the Bradley Review reforms to universities, said the Shadow Minister for Universities and Research, Senator Brett Mason.
    Senator Mason was referring to his questioning of Tertiary Education Minister, Senator Chris Evans, and Education Department officials regarding forecasts connected with the move to a student demand-driven system as well as the Government's intention to increase the number of 25 to 34-year olds in higher education to 40 per cent by 2025.
    “No one could provide me with any research or projections concerning this enormous increase in student numbers over the next two decades,” said Senator Mason.
    "I am not asking them to look into a crystal ball – I'm simply saying they need to plan properly".
    “Extraordinarily, it appears that no studies or projections of any kind have been done by the Minister's Department or requested to be done by other departments, agencies or private sector consultants.
    “Neither the Minister nor Departmental officials were able to tell me or the Senate Committee:
    • the estimated cost over future years of funding university places to achieve the Government targets;
    • how much new infrastructure will be required to accommodate all the extra students at our universities;
    • the potential impact of a better educated population on increasing the standards of living, the tax base, productivity and economic growth, or the impact on innovation and research;
    • quantifying the range of potential benefits for our community and economy flowing from an increase in number of Australians with tertiary education; or
    • any indication of the demographic or economic impact of implementing these reforms in each state, territory and for regional communities.
    “The Government instead is moving ahead blindly – and so are the taxpayers, who ultimately will bear a significant portion of the cost of this massive expansion in our university sector. Taxpayers and universities should be concerned by the Government's lackadaisical attitude.
    “Sadly, this is not an atypical approach by the Gillard Labor Government. Programs as varied as the Digital Education Revolution and the National Broadband Network (NBN) have been put together in a slap-dash manner without much planning or thought given to details, and without proper costings and cost-benefit analyses.
    “The previous Coalition government’s Intergenerational Report provided economic projections by Treasury going out to 2049-50, including population projections (including a breakdown of age cohorts), workforce projections, fiscal projections, and projected expenditure on various key government functions (including education). So I simply cannot accept any of the Government’s lame excuses as to why making any sort of projections or forecasts in relation to the impact of the Bradley reforms is too difficult, impossible or not worthwhile.”
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