Single biggest cut in the budget is a brutal attack on young people

2017-05-10

Malcolm Turnbull has proven he has his priorities wrong if he thinks he can foster a clever country by cutting $3.8 billion from universities, while planning to loan $1 billion to Adani for a useless coalmine.

“It is ludicrous to think Malcolm Turnbull wants to lend money to Adani for a coalmine that no-one wants, no questions asked, yet he is pinching pennies when it comes to building a clever country.

“This attack on young people could not be more stark. A $3.8 billion cut from universities at a time when young people are priced out of the housing market, facing record-high rents and mounting living costs, and losing their penalty rates, flies in the face of the former leather jacket-wearing, smooth-talking, pro-innovation Prime Minister.

“Loaning $1 billion to Adani to prop up a dying industry rather than investing in our nation’s future by fostering a generation of educated and talented young Australians is short-sighted policy and dumb politics.

“If the Prime Minister was serious about investing in nation-building and innovation, he’d dust off the leather jacket and ditch the brutal attack on young people.”

 

Media contact: Amy Moran 0427 604 760

Media Release Education