2017-04-29
The Australian Greens have slammed the Turnbull Government for its planned attack on Australian university students in the 2017 budget.
“This is Malcolm Turnbull shaping up for a 2017 Budget that is an all-out assault on students. The Government is doing nothing about the tax rorts for wealthy investors, pushing up house prices and making rent more expensive, and now they’re hitting students with $100,000 degrees,” Greens education and finance spokesperson Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said.
“Screwing over students instead of reigning in tax-breaks for wealthy investors and big business sets the scene for another lame and out-of-touch Budget from the Coalition.
“This government has its priorities all wrong and it seems Malcolm Turnbull hasn't learnt from Tony Abbott's mistakes. Launching a Budget attack on students while continuing to let their big business mates off the hook is bad policy and bad politics.
“I don’t know when students became Public Enemy Number 1 for this government, but it’s ludicrous to think that Malcolm Turnbull wants to give a billion dollar loan to Adani for a coal mine nobody wants, while making students pay through the nose for a university education that benefits the whole community.
“I urge my Senate colleagues to reject this attack on students outright. With record youth unemployment, there’s no excuse for making education even more unattainable and more expensive for young Australians.
“This is cheap, nasty, short-term thinking from a government that is ignoring the real structural problems in the Budget; the unaffordable multi-billion tax cuts to big business and unfair tax-breaks to rich property investors.”
Media contact: Amy Moran 0427 604 760
Media Release Education