2016-04-06
The Australian Greens are urging the government to drop its deregulation agenda that seeks to punish students by hiking up the cost of university course fees.
"Students shouldn't be penalised for poor policy decisions by the Liberal and Labor parties which have led to the government writing off billions of taxpayer dollars due to bad debts associated with the for-profit VET sector," Greens higher education spokesperson Senator Robert Simms said.
"By going down the path of deregulation, studying at university will likely become unattainable for students from lower income or disadvantaged backgrounds.
"Everyone agrees the current for-profit model is broken. It is time to start looking for genuine solutions, rather than lumping more debt on students who are already under immense cost of living pressures.
"Instead of hiking up fees to plug this multibillion budget gap the government should focus on properly regulating the for-profit VET sector and redirect public funding into universities and TAFE."