2020-10-06
Australian Greens Education spokesperson Senator Mehreen Faruqi has said that Centre Alliance has cut a reprehensible deal with the Liberals to support a bill that raises university fees, cuts funding and punishes struggling students.
Senator Faruqi said:
“Centre Alliance has chosen to sell out students, young people and our universities.
“They’ve bought the government spin, hook, line and sinker. They should be ashamed of condemning generations of young people to decades of debt.
“This bill is a cruel and unfixable mess. It condemns students to decades of debt, universities to even less funding, and the country to a bleak, anti-intellectual future.
“First-in-family, low-SES and First Nations students will be particularly hard hit by the cruelty of the legislation.
“Any concessions ‘won’ will not remove the cruelty and austerity that is at the heart of this legislation.
“Rebekha Sharkie and Senator Stirling Griff can still change their minds. They should vote to block the bill. They can still choose a bright future for students and our country over a bleak future offered by a cruel government,” she said.