Job-Ready Graduates Bill passes into law

The Morrison Government’s latest attack on the higher education sector – the Job-Ready Graduates amendments to the Higher Education Support Act – were passed by the Senate on 8 October.

The legislation will strip $1 billion of funding from universities, more than double the cost of many courses and in particular arts and humanities courses, and make it more difficult for many students to go to university. It will jeopardise more university jobs, increase insecure employment and the quality of education provided to students.

Michael Evans, NTEU

National Organiser (Media & Engagement) Centre Alliance plays ball with the Coalition The Bill was passed in the Senate by one vote – that of Centre Alliance (CA) Senator Stirling Griff. It’s disappointing that Centre Alliance chose to ignore the thousands of constituents who contacted them to oppose the Bill, something that we hope South Australian voters remember at the next federal election. We also hope that the price that Senator Griff sold his vote for is worth it to a generation of students who will now be burdened with overwhelming debt, or deterred from seeking a university education because of the cost.

It is also extremely disappointing that this has been done with the complicity of the majority of vice-chancellors who supported the package. It would be well worth asking them to explain why they supported a package that will make university even more expensive for large numbers of their students, while reducing the funding for research and teaching overall.

Campaigning in a pandemic Despite the obvious constraints on running a big public campaign imposed by the coronavirus, we were able to achieve an impressive list of campaign activities: • Over 16,000 people signed our Fund

Uni Fairly petition to Education Minister Dan Tehan. The petition was tabled in the Senate by ALP Senator Louise

Pratt on 2 September. • Nearly 6,000 people from around the country sent emails to the crossbench

Senators urging them to block the

Government’s legislation. • Over 100 members from three NSW

Branches sent emails to National Party

MPs and Senators urging them to block the Bill because of the potential effects on regional universities. • Nearly 600 members and supporters sent submissions to the Senate inquiry on the Government’s proposed legislation (over 80% of the submissions received by the Senate inquiry were negative about the proposed changes to funding). • Many NTEU members contacted their local MP urging them to not support the Bill. • We prepared briefing papers to assist members to lobby their MPs. • ALP education spokespeople Tanya

Plibersek and Louise Pratt spoke to a gathering of Tasmanian members online to announce that the ALP would not support the proposed Bill. • We developed a Fund Uni Fairly pledge that was signed by ALP and Greens

MPs, independent Senator Rex Patrick from South Australia, and Tasmanian

MP Andrew Wilkie.

• We regularly targeted social media ads at the crossbench Senators urging them to block the Bill. • We ran a full page advertisement in the

Burnie Advocate on 21 August, urging the crossbench Senators (and Jacqui

Lambie in particular, as Burnie is her home town) to block the Bill. • NTEU prepared three different submissions in relation to the Bill, and NTEU

National President Alison Barnes gave presentations to two Senate inquiries about the legislation. • We had strong support from the Australian Services Union (ASU) and the

Australian Education Union (AEU) who sent information to their members and urged them to contact their local MP. • Our ACT members demonstrated against the Job-Ready Graduates Bill in front of Parliament House on 28

August, the first sitting day of the last

Parliamentary session. • We received support for our campaign from a range of academic professional associations, especially in the arts and humanities. • Over 80 NTEU Tasmanian members, students and supporters attended an online meeting on 24 September to discuss the Bill and our campaign. • Over 180 people attended a national online seminar on 25 September to hear a presentation on the Bill and the campaign. The meeting culminated in participants sending emails to the crossbench Senators, phoning their offices, and tweeting and posting on social media to get the message across to the MPs. • A giant mobile billboard calling on

Centre Alliance (CA) to vote against the

Bill was driven around CA MP Rebekha

Sharkie’s electorate of Mayo over a long weekend, just before the final

Senate vote.

• A snap online action was held on 2

October, where over 300 members, students and supporters around the country sent emails, social media posts and phoned the CA MPs’ offices. It’s fair to say that our campaign was instrumental in persuading independent Senators Jacqui Lambie and Rex Patrick to vote against the Bill. Funding and jobs crisis continues unabated The legislation does nothing to address the funding and jobs crisis that is smashing our universities as a result of COVID-19, with over 12,000 jobs lost and a revenue shortfall of nearly $3 billion. The author of this mess is Dan Tehan and the Coalition Government, which has completely abandoned Australian universities during their worst ever crisis. Rather than stepping in with a robust support package, the Liberals and Nationals have pushed the cost of the crisis onto students and the university workforce. Livelihoods and careers are being destroyed and irreparably damaged. This Government has used the COVID-19 crisis as an excuse to implement an agenda which sees less funding for universities to teach and research, more debt for students, opens the door to rampant privatisation, and drives up insecure jobs in higher education – its agenda is to cut the heart out of our university sector in what is an ideologically driven vendetta against universities, students and staff. The campaign to repeal this legislation and win fair university funding will continue and run right up to the federal election and beyond. We need a fair and equitable higher education system where obtaining a degree doesn’t depend on your capacity to pay. ◆