2017-05-01
The Australian Greens are concerned that, in the lead up to the Federal Budget, the government’s loyalties seem to lie with property investors and foreign owned mining companies over Australian university students.
“Cutting a billion dollars from our universities while driving up fees for students is a regressive, unfair and stupid idea,” the Greens’ education and finance spokesperson, Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said.
“It’s ridiculous that, while this government is shaping up to make it harder for students to take loans to cover their education, they’re trying to give the foreign-owned coal mining company Adani a billion dollar loan at 'mates rates'.
“This government’s priorities are all wrong. Investing less in education and more in coal is not just bad policy, it’s dumb politics.
“Following billions of dollars of cuts in recent years, it’s time this government laid off of our universities, students and the higher education sector.
“It seems Malcolm Turnbull has learned nothing from the 2014 Budget and Tony Abbott’s disastrous attempt to gut Australian universities.
“Students, educators and parents won’t take these cuts lying down. The Greens will stand with the community and vote against these cuts in the Senate and I call on my colleagues in the Labor Party and on the cross bench to do the same.”
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